Policy

Feds Want To Know: What Are the Most Pressing Questions in Education?

• By David Nagel
• 10/30/14

The United States Department of Education is soliciting input on educational funding for developing an evidence base for education practice. Specifically, ED has put out a call for educators and the public to "identify what the most pressing education policy and/or practice questions are and how answering them could provide needed information to educators, parents and local, state, and federal governments to enable significant improvements in education."

According to ED, the department is looking to take advantage of a provision of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 that allows it to pool resources from across programs that are part of Elementary and Secondary Education Act when doing so serves the purpose of "strengthen[ing] the impact of our evaluation work."

In particular, ED is asking education professionals to answer the following (quoted verbatim from an ed.gov blog post):

1. What are the most critical P-12 questions that are still unanswered?
2. How could answering these questions provide information that could be used by schools, districts, and States to improve student outcomes for all students and/or particular groups of students?
3. What type of study could answer these questions and produce findings that are reliable and generalizable?
4. What implications would these findings have for existing practices, policies, and federal programs? Please mention the specific practices, policies, and programs by name if possible.

Input can be submitted in the comments section of the ed.gov blog or via e-mail at evaluationideas@ed.gov. Comments are due by Dec. 1.