AAU urges Congress to provide $814.5 million for the Institute for Education Sciences in FY23.
The Institute for Education Sciences (IES) is the primary federal agency charged with supporting research for education practice and policy. Since its formation in 2002, IES has transformed the quality and rigor of Department of Education research and increased demand for evidence-based research on educational effectiveness.
IES supports high-quality education research that results in teaching and learning innovations that offer tremendous returns for our society. This level of funding would help bolster the essential research and data infrastructure on which state and local education leaders depend, restore funding levels for critical programs that had been cut, and increase funding for programs for which funding has stagnated. Additionally, this funding would enable IES to continue this critical work and to evaluate the impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on learning. It would also facilitate the adoption of evidence-based strategies to mitigate learning loss that has occurred due to the pandemic.
The accomplishments of IES, and its researchers and innovators, are numerous and will continue to have positive impacts on students’ lives as well as many other parts of society.
Within IES, the National Center for Education Research supports rigorous evidence-based research that helps improve the quality of education by supporting research to reduce the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students as well as research on how to increase access to, and completion of, postsecondary education.
The National Center for Special Education Research is another important center within IES. It supports comprehensive research programs to promote the highest quality and rigor in research on special education and related services.