The Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) is a collaborative effort jointly sponsored by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education (see http://www.ed.gov/programs/edresearch/applicant.html), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in the National Institutes of Health (see http://www.nichd.nih.gov/funding/funding-opps.htm). In FY 2004 the IERI grant competition will be managed separately by each agency. The National Science Foundation invites proposals for research projects that will investigate the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve student learning and achievement in preK-12 science and/or preK-12 mathematics with an emphasis on middle and high school. Technology should be a part of the intervention or used in an essential manner in the analysis of the intervention.

The goal of the Interagency Education Research Initiative for NSF is to support scientific research that investigates the effectiveness of educational interventions (defined as educational practices, strategies, curricula, or programs) in preK-12 science and/or mathematics as they are implemented in varied school and home settings with diverse student populations. From an empirical perspective, the aim of IERI is to identify the conditions under which effective, evidence-based interventions to improve preK-12 student learning and achievement succeed when applied on a large scale. This necessarily requires a multidisciplinary approach; the participation of a variety of experts including science, mathematics, and engineering faculty along with education researchers is encouraged.  In addition, successful projects will include a variety of partners such as states, universities, schools, teachers, and parents and will also require the use of technology for the scaling or the study of the intervention. NSF especially encourages proposals focusing on middle and high school mathematics and/or science.

IERI will fund two types of projects -- contextual projects and scaling projects.

• Contextual projects are smaller projects that aim to develop components of a potential scaling project. Examples include feasibility studies, instrument development, and replication studies. Contextual projects can be funded for up to 5 years for up to a total of $2,000,000. 
• Scaling projects are larger projects that aim to demonstrate that an intervention can scale in either size of affected population or in the variety of contexts in which the intervention is successful. Scaling projects can be funded for up to 5 years for up to a total of $6,000,000. Scaling projects must have a strong evidentiary base and demonstrate, through rigorous, well-controlled, large-scale empirical studies, which proposed education approaches are in fact most effective in practice. The interventions may be school-based or based outside of school and should use technology either in the intervention or in its analysis.

 Agency Representative

• Finbarr (Barry) Sloane, National Science Foundation, Rm 855, telephone: 703-292-5146, email: fsloane@nsf.gov.

Improving education is a mission that must be supported by rigorous and sustained research and development.  State and local policy makers, as well as school-level administrators and university faculty and administrators, need information on efforts at improvement that have led to increased and sustained student learning.  In support of this mission, the Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) is designed to help educators integrate the insights of scientific research on educational improvement into the realities of varied educational contexts to produce sustainable improvements in learning for diverse student populations.  NSF focuses its contribution to the interagency program on preK-12 mathematics and science education, with an emphasis on the middle and secondary school years.

IERI received its initial impetus from a 1997 report of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).  The report emphasized the need for a strong research base for educational improvement and highlighted the potential importance of taking advantage of the benefits of technological change in designing solutions to educational problems.  Building on the PCAST recommendations, NSF, the Department of Education’s Institute for Education Sciences, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) developed IERI as a joint activity of the three agencies.  The focus of IERI has been on improving reading, mathematics and science education through scaling up of proven approaches with an emphasis on using technology.

After 5 years of a joint solicitation, the agencies have determined they can best meet the objectives of the interagency program through individual solicitations that focus attention in their particular areas of expertise and build capacity in those areas. A joint solicitation will be revisited in two years.  In the early years of the program, participation from the science and mathematics communities and the related educational communities has been less intense than originally anticipated.  This NSF IERI solicitation is aimed at enhancing participation of these communities in developing a strong base of information regarding approaches to improving mathematics and science education that will influence current and future efforts to move to larger scale.

IERI aims to build to the next generation of educational research that is attentive to the context in which educators do their work, pushing past controlled laboratory studies to ensure adaptability to classroom settings.  Exploration of technology in improving student learning is important because of its potential to change radically the approaches we take to education.  IERI looks beyond an individual course or pedagogical approach to improved student learning that is sustained and capable of supporting advanced study in science and mathematics.

NSF has organized its approach to educational improvement in science, mathematics, and technology into a cycle of discovery, innovation and application that includes:

• Developing and testing theory and knowledge about teaching and learning;
• Designing and developing tools, materials and methods;
• Designing, implementing, and documenting interventions;
• Synthesizing and interpreting results and identifying new insights and questions; and
• Conducting research on problems of learning, teaching, implementation, and policy.

(The cycle of discovery is adapted from Rand Mathematics Study Panel, 2002)

IERI focuses its attention on the last three elements of this cycle.  Scaling up requires attention to synthesis and interpretation of results; identification of the evidence base for effectiveness of interventions; articulating questions that arise from exploring this information base; and designing, implementing and documenting new interventions at larger scale.  Conducting the research that enables these processes is what IERI is all about. 

Over the past two decades, there have been many different types of projects that aim at educational improvement in science and mathematics.  Some projects have undergone evaluation processes that provide evidence of effectiveness; others have not.  Very few have had participation from individuals with the full range of expertise needed to explore the issues central to scaling up.  Likewise, very few have brought to bear the full range of ideas and tools needed to explore scaling to new contexts or larger venues.

This IERI solicitation is designed to improve the capability of the science, mathematics, and education communities to address the substantive issues of scaling up that are critical to attaining the IERI objectives.  While IERI will accept proposals for scaling up, the focus for FY 2004 is on establishing the scientific ground from which scaling up might occur.  Participation of the mathematics and science communities is particularly important in identifying those activities that have a long term, sustainable impact on improving learning that paves the way for advanced study.  This will complement the participation of those with expertise in the tools and methods of research into educational improvement, as well as those with experience in implementing improvement strategies and those on the front lines in our schools and classrooms.

Background:

Many studies show that US students struggle to achieve in mathematics. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the TIMSS-Repeat Study (http://nces.ed.gov/timss/ ) reveal that students in the United States master fundamental skills and knowledge of mathematics and science during their elementary school years at the same rate as their international peers on average. These studies, however, indicate that U.S. students are less likely to master and/or be taught more complex and conceptually difficult material during their middle and high school years, resulting in lower achievement, relative to students from other countries. The Third International Mathematics and Science Study - Benchmark Study - indicates that there are great inequities in science achievement across the country. The results demonstrate that students in some schools perform among the best in the world, while students in other schools do poorly (Martin et al., 2001; National Center for Educational Statistics, 1999).

The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently published Adding it Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (2001). The NAS report argues for a comprehensive view of mathematics learning that the committee refers to as "mathematical proficiency."   A report recently issued by the RAND Corporation (Rand Mathematics Study Panel ) highlighted three areas of research: 1) Developing teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching, 2) teaching and learning mathematical practices, and 3) teaching and learning algebra (see http://www.rand.org/multi/achievementforall/math/ for the full text of the report). 

The most recent results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)  (National Center for Education Statistics, 2002) show that, overall, student achievement is not improving in the sciences. At the 12^th grade level, student achievement has actually declined when compared with students’ scores five years ago (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2000).

IERI projects can help address these serious concerns by scaling up the most powerful and promising approaches to mathematics and science education—approaches for which effectiveness has been demonstrated by the accumulated evidence from research.

Projects eligible for IERI support could arise from existing projects supported within the EHR Directorate, from education projects within other NSF Directorates, or from projects not supported by NSF. Projects that address math and science content at the middle and high school levels are especially encouraged.

Mechanisms of Support

Contextual Projects : Contextual Project proposals may not exceed an overall budget of $2,000,000 for up to five years.

Examples of contextual projects include:

Feasibility Studies - Support for pilot studies of scale-up that are designed to study critical implementation factors and/or to refine methodological features for scale up.  Such studies might include synthesis from existing research and applications of the synthesized results in developing the design for intervention and research in the next cycle of innovation.

Replication Studies - IERI will support the replication of previous studies in new contexts.

Measurement Studies – Studies to develop and document the psychometric properties of test items that are designed to measure learning critical to scaling up research are eligible as contextual projects.  Investigators may, for example, propose to develop measures that assess the fidelity of implementations, student knowledge, teacher knowledge, or other important predictor or outcome variables related to scale-up.  The study of measures that use technology as an essential component is especially encouraged.  For example, a variety of concept inventories are currently available in several science disciplines; studies of their reliability and validity are important before they can be used widely for scaling up research.

Technology Projects

IERI will support pilot technology projects with student learning as an outcome and will support the use of technology in the development of ways of assessing student progress.

All contextual projects should promise a synthesis and interpretation of their results that, in combination with results of other projects, can lead to a scaling project.

Scaling Projects : Scaling Project proposals may not exceed an overall budget of $6,000,000 for up to five years.

Examples of Scaling Projects include:

Curriculum Studies - Studies of complete mathematics or science curricula, which were shown to be successful in limited settings, applied across a wider spectrum of schools and settings, especially when tied to student learning and the preparation for university science and mathematics study.

Teacher Enhancement - Studies involving teacher enhancement programs that deal with activities likely to be encountered in typical schools. These studies should include measures of teacher knowledge regarding mathematics and/or science content, pedagogy, and effective use of assessment strategies. These studies should have student learning as a primary measure to determine the effectiveness of the teacher intervention and should include partnerships with university science and mathematics departments.

Technology Deployment - Studies of deployment of technology to a much larger scale (state-wide, nation-wide).  Examples of such deployment include the essential use of the world wide web, the use of automated tutors in schools, and the use of virtual learning environments in science and mathematics.  The initial deployment must have shown substantial student achievement gains in order to be eligible for a scaling award.

Additional Considerations

Sources for IERI Projects Projects eligible for IERI suppport can arise from many sources, including NSF-supported projects at any educational level. For example, projects in undergraduate education with an evidentiary base for effectiveness might be adapted to the secondary school environment. This might include technology-based pedagogical innovations such as virtual laboratories, mentoring mechanisms, use of digital libraries, or curricular innovations. In-service teacher enhancement activities might be adapted to pre-service teacher education programs or vice-versa. Advances in science and mathematics may provide new ways for students to learn what it is to do science, rather than simply learning about science.

Technology

Projects that advance the state of new technology uses in the context of mathematics or science learning are especially welcome. These include the use of digital libraries in science and mathematics curricula, experimental mathematics and science using computational tools, the use of collaboration technologies to support student/faculty interactions, the use of visualization to support mathematics and science learning, and the use of Grid-like technologies for virtual classrooms. Additionally, projects that use innovative technology in the analysis of interventions, such as data mining and statistical learning, are welcome.

Human Capital

An important component of IERI projects is attention to the development of people who will be able to participate in future contextual or scaling projects. In particular, the involvement of scientists and engineers in science education projects and mathematicians in mathematics education projects is highly recommended. Scientists, engineers, and mathematicians could be involved in projects as   PI’s, co-PI’s, post-doctoral investigators or graduate and undergraduate students.   Additionally, the training of the next generation of education researchers with the requisite methodological skills to develop scaling projects is important. Both graduate and postdoctoral support can be used for such training activities.

Accumulation of Knowledge

All IERI projects are expected to accumulate and communicate knowledge to the relevant research communities. Successful IERI projects must demonstrate that they are building upon knowledge from previous research and that they can successfully contribute to that knowledge base. Simply publishing papers or building a web site does not constitute evidence of knowledge accumulation. Active engagement with the research community at large and active contributions to data repositories, active tool sharing, active instrument sharing, and strong outreach are characteristics of knowledge building for successful projects. IERI supports a Data Coordination Center at the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) and funded scaling projects are expected to share data with NORC and provide access to findings. NORC also provides technical assistance for scaling projects.