[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 94 (Wednesday, July 19, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1271-E1272]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE SCIENTIFICALLY-BASED EDUCATION RESEARCH, EVALUATION, STATISTICS AND 
                        INFORMATION ACT OF 2000

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 18, 2000

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, today I am pleased to introduce legislation 
that I believe will vastly improve the quality, relevance, and 
objectivity of education research, program evaluations and statistical 
analyses supported through federal funds.
  Educators and policymakers must have unbiased, reliable and 
responsive information to prepare our Nation's children for the 
challenges of this new century. Unfortunately, the federal government 
does not have a system in place to ensure that education research and 
other information is available to those that need it most--our 
teachers. At the same time, our states and school districts are 
adopting new accountability measures designed to hold teachers and 
students to new, higher standards of academic achievement, For these 
reasons, the need to know what works and what does not has never been 
greater.
  Unfortunately, educators and policymakers have grown wary of 
education programs and practices that claim to be the ``silver bullet'' 
to improve student academic achievement until they fall out of favor 
with the community and a new fad comes along. As a result, schools find 
themselves blindly following a path they hope will lead to increased 
academic achievement without knowing if these programs are based on 
actual scientific research or just a hunch. Unfortunately, these fads 
not only fail to improve student academic achievement--they can 
actually be harmful to student learning.
  To date, the federal government has done little to lessen this 
confusion and, in many cases, it has actually made things worse. Just 
last year, an ``expert panel'' convened by the U.S. Department of 
Education endorsed ten K-12 math programs as ``promising or 
exemplary.'' Subsequently, two hundred mathematicians and scientists 
from leading universities sent a letter of protest to the department 
because of what they felt were ``serious mathematical shortcomings'' in 
the endorsed programs.
  In fact, these experts were so concerned, they placed full-page 
advertisements in the nation's leading newspapers. In their collective 
expert opinion, mathematics instruction would be severely ``dumbed 
down'' if these particular programs were implemented in our Nation's 
schools. Despite their concerns, the programs--which lack rigorous 
scientific examination to validate their claims--continue to be widely 
disseminated to schools across the country by the Department of 
Education.
  Not surprisingly, the dissemination of unproven or ineffective 
programs is not a new problem. From 1967 to 1976, the federal 
government managed the largest education experiment ever conducted in 
the United States--comparing more than twenty different teacher 
approaches on more than 70,000 students in more than 180 schools. At 
the end of the study, all of the programs, those that were successful 
and those that failed, were recommended for distribution to school 
districts. In fact, some of these programs, even those that were 
considered a failure in the study, were rated as ``exemplary and 
effective.''
  While the wide dissemination of programs that have not been validated 
through scientific research is one problem--the lack of quality in 
research is also a major concern.
  Recently, Congress established a National Reading Panel to evaluate 
existing research on the most effective approaches for teaching 
children to read. The panel examined more than 100,000 federally funded 
studies on reading--some written as far back as 1966. After an 
exhaustive review, the panel concluded that, of the 100,000 studies, 
only 10,000 met their standards for academic and scientific rigor.
  Simply put, we can no longer tolerate flawed research that fails our 
children. For this reason, my legislation seeks to ensure the quality 
and integrity of the federal government's research, evaluation, and 
statistical activities. Specifically, the ``The Scientifically-Based 
Education Research, Evaluation, Statistics and Information Act of 
2000'' provides clear standards and definitions for the extent of rigor 
that must be undertaken when conducting education research, evaluation 
and statistics with federal funds.
  Under this Act, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement 
(currently located within the Department of Education) would be 
eliminated and replaced with a new national academy that provides the 
infrastructure for the undertaking of coordinated and high quality 
educational research, statistics gathering, program evaluation, and 
information dissemination. The academy would be separate from the 
Department of Education or any other federal agency as a means of 
ensuring its activities are carried out with the greatest degree of 
independence and integrity.
  This academy would house three main centers, the National Center for 
Education Research, the National Center for Program Evaluation and 
Development, and the National Center for Education Statistics, as well 
as the National Education Library and Clearinghouse Office.
  The National Center for Education Research, which would replace the 
five existing education institutes, would focus on a limited number of 
research priorities designed to address educational issues of national 
importance. Of course, all research funded by the center would be 
required to meet the rigorous requirements of ``scientifically valid 
research'' as defined in the legislation.
  Next, the National Center for Program Evaluation and Development 
would provide truly independent program evaluations designed 
specifically to determine what works and what does not. Currently, the 
Department of Education is charged with evaluating its own programs and 
it does not have the incentive to dedicate the resources necessary to 
conduct high quality evaluations that are able to demonstrate whether 
programs are actually working.
  Finally, the legislation places the existing National Center for 
Educational Statistics under the academy and outside of the Department 
of Education. The bill also makes slight changes to the National 
Assessment Governing Board (NAGB), which would be given full authority 
to develop the policy and carry out the National Assessment of 
Educational Progress (NAEP).
  As I mentioned earlier, the academy would also house the National 
Education Library and Clearinghouse Office, which would be responsible 
for collecting, archiving and disseminating all research, statistics 
and evaluations undertaken within the agency as well as other 
education-related materials from other federal agencies and research 
institutions. This would replace the current maze of federal education 
clearinghouses that span the Office of Educational Research Improvement 
and the Department of Education.
  In addition to the activities carried out under the new academy, the 
Department of Education would house an Office of Planning, Performance 
Measurement, and Technical Assistance, combining the existing functions 
of several different offices within the department. In addition to 
short-term evaluations, the office would oversee the implementation of 
a performance measurement system to measure the quality of education 
programs.
  The office would also oversee a regionally-based grant program which 
combines funds currently directed to Regional Educational Laboratories, 
Comprehensive Centers, Regional Technology Centers, and a portion of 
the funds under the Eisenhower Math and Science Consortium currently 
used for technical assistance. Each region of the country, as 
designated by the director of the office, would convene a governing 
board to determine its unique priorities and to develop a plan for 
disseminating educational research, providing technical assistance, and 
carrying out applied research projects. Finally, the office would 
oversee a state-based grant program to provide high-need schools the 
opportunity to select their own providers of high quality technical 
assistance.
  Mr. Speaker, by holding education research, evaluations and 
statistics to new standards of rigor, improving the focus of these 
activities so they are relevant to the needs of educators and 
policymakers, and laying the framework for the dissemination of high 
quality, scientifically valid information--we will improve the

[[Page E1272]]

education of our nation's children. I hope Members will join me in 
support of this important initiative and the historic shift that it 
represents.

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