[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 8, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-5301]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: March 8, 1994]


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Part V





Department of Education





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Educational Research and Development Centers Program; Final Priority 
for Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995; Notice
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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

 

Educational Research and Development Centers Program, Final 
Priority for Fiscal Years 1994 and 1995

AGENCY: Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice of final priority for fiscal years 1994 and 1995.

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SUMMARY: The Secretary announces a priority for fiscal years 1994 and 
1995 under the Educational Research and Development Centers Program. 
The Secretary takes this action to support a national research and 
development center or centers to study the education of children and 
youth placed at risk of educational failure. The priority is intended 
to increase knowledge related to improving educational practices that 
address an important national need.

EFFECTIVE DATE: This priority takes effect either 45 days after 
publication in the Federal Register or later if the Congress takes 
certain adjournments. If you want to know the effective date of this 
priority, call or write the Department of Education contact person.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Dr. Joseph Conaty, U.S. Department of 
Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW, room 610, Washington, DC 20208-
5573. Telephone: (202) 219-2079. Individuals who use a 
telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD) may call the Federal 
Information Relay Service (FIRS) at 1-800-877-8339 between 8 a.m. and 8 
p.m., Eastern time, Monday through Friday.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Educational Research and Development 
Centers Program, authorized under section 405 of the General Education 
Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1221e), supports sustained educational 
research and development activities, including those designed to 
generate knowledge that increases the capacity of the Nation's 
education system to provide all children and youth with equal 
educational opportunities to achieve academic excellence. The program 
helps to advance the National Education Goals, which emphasize the 
importance of improving the quality of education for children and youth 
(1) who are most at risk of educational failure, or (2) whose 
educational achievement falls seriously short of their educational 
potential.
    Using guidance provided from such sources as the recent National 
Academy of Sciences' report on Research and Education Reform: Roles for 
the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (1992) and public 
comments provided by researchers, policymakers, and practitioners, the 
Secretary seeks to provide support for national research and 
development centers designed to conduct sound and coherent education 
research programs on important topics.
    The Secretary believes that deliberate, sustained, and coordinated 
initiatives should be undertaken to improve the social and educational 
conditions that threaten the learning of many educationally 
disadvantaged children and youth, in urban and rural settings. (Readers 
should note that, as used in this notice--including the priority--the 
term ``students'' means children and youth in educational systems, 
programs, or settings.)
    In the course of developing this final priority, the Secretary has 
followed legally mandated procedures for rulemaking. In addition, the 
Secretary has, through the Office of Educational Research and 
Improvement (OERI), engaged in other information gathering activities 
designed to ensure identification of the kinds of research needed to 
improve the education of all students who are at risk of school failure 
or whose academic performance does not meet high standards. The 
following statement describes in chronological order all the activities 
undertaken by the Secretary to obtain public comments and other 
information that have been taken into account in developing this final 
priority.
    On January 27, 1993, the Secretary published a notice in the 
Federal Register (58 FR 6267) inviting public comments on ``research 
needed to improve the education of students who are at risk of 
educational failure or substantially below average academic 
achievement.'' The notice did not propose a priority, but solicited 
comments to be considered by OERI in determining what priority, if any, 
should be proposed with respect to this subject area. The notice 
requested that written comments from the public be submitted by March 
1, 1993.
    In June 1993, staff of OERI met with appropriate officials from the 
Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, Agriculture, 
and Housing and Urban Development, and the National Science Foundation 
to discuss the subject of the January 27 Federal Register notice.
    On October 4, 1993, the Secretary published in the Federal Register 
(58 FR 51690) a proposed priority to govern any competition for a 
national research and development center or centers to study the 
education of children and youth at risk of educational failure. In the 
October 1993 notice the Secretary also stated the availability of a 
draft of a background document to be used to provide additional 
suggestions to prospective applicants about addressing the mission of 
the planned center, and the priority. The notice invited written public 
comments--to be submitted by November 18, 1993--on the proposed 
priority and the related background document. On October 4 and 5, 
immediately after publication of the proposed priority, OERI convened a 
meeting of non-Federal researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and 
parents to discuss the proposed priority and the background document.

    Note: This notice of final priority does not solicit 
applications. A notice inviting applications under this competition 
is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

Analysis of Comments and Changes

    In response to the Secretary's invitation in the notice of proposed 
priority, 45 parties submitted written comments. An analysis of the 
comments and of the changes in the priority since publication of the 
notice of proposed priority follows. Technical and other minor 
changes--and suggested changes the Secretary is not legally authorized 
to make under the applicable statutory authority--are not addressed.
    Comments: Two commenters recommended that the Department cancel its 
plans to make an award for a research and development center that would 
address this priority. They believed that the prospective center's work 
would duplicate research already under way at other national research 
and development centers supported by OERI or at other locations 
supported by various Federal agencies and private foundations. They 
felt that the proposed center's findings would not be used to improve 
the educational system, because the center would not collaborate with 
laboratories or clearinghouses or with practitioners in schools.
    Twenty-three commenters wrote to express general support for 
establishing a center addressing the priority, and an overwhelming 
majority of other comments received made specific recommendations 
regarding the research activities that this type of center should 
conduct, implying these commenters' support for such a project.
    Discussion: The Secretary does not believe that a center carrying 
out the priority will duplicate research already under way or 
completed. The Secretary will make an award only if convinced that the 
applicant's proposed work promises to make significant contributions to 
the field. Centers are required by regulation to collaborate with other 
national research and development centers, laboratories, and 
clearinghouses. Centers are also required to ensure that information 
developed as a result of their research and development activities, 
including new educational methods, practices, techniques, and products, 
will be appropriately disseminated.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Twelve commenters recommended dropping the use of the 
term ``at-risk students.'' They believed that the term implied blaming 
students for being in circumstances for which the students are not 
responsible and that labelling students in this way has negative 
consequences for the students. The commenters suggested adopting a term 
that shifted the emphasis to the conditions or institutions that 
produce the risk of educational failure, such as poverty, abuse, 
violence, poor health, limited English proficiency, and schools that 
contain barriers to educational success.
    Discussion: The Secretary does not wish to imply that children and 
youth should be considered responsible for the conditions in which they 
live and over which they have no control. Families, communities, 
schools, and society at large all may have contributed to the adverse 
conditions faced by many children and youth, along with circumstances 
outside of anyone's control. At the same time, the Secretary believes, 
as several commenters noted, that it is important to realize that there 
are children and youth whose individual qualities enable them to 
succeed despite the difficult obstacles they face.
    Changes: The Secretary has dropped the term ``at-risk students'' 
from the priority, replacing it with a term that draws attention to 
conditions that place children and youth at risk and, thereby, make it 
especially difficult for them to attain educational success.
    Comments: Fifteen commenters recommended that the priority identify 
more specifically the population or populations of children and youth 
placed at risk of educational failure. The commenters identified some 
17 populations of children and youth that individual commenters felt 
needed improvements in their opportunities to learn and attain 
educational success. Examples of these identified population groups 
included children who are poor, those from diverse cultural 
backgrounds, and adolescents. Many of the comments referred to the need 
to concentrate the limited resources of the center on one or another of 
these populations.
    Discussion: The comments reflect a variety of different views about 
which population or populations of children and youth placed at risk of 
educational failure the center's work should focus on and what research 
knowledge would be most helpful to improving their education. In many 
instances individual children and youth fall into several of the 
recommended population categories; for example, young children with 
disabilities living in rural poverty. The Secretary believes that, 
taken together, the comments do not reflect one way of population 
identification that is clearly best. The Secretary believes that better 
applications will result if applicants are allowed to propose and 
justify what population or populations will be studied in their 
proposed center's research and development activities.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Ten commenters recommended that the priority place a 
greater emphasis on activities related to development. The commenters 
felt that current research knowledge was underused. They also felt that 
by carrying out certain development-related activities researchers and 
educators could improve their understanding of how to use knowledge 
gained from research to implement successful educational practices in 
numerous settings.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that development activities are 
an integral part of the work of research and development centers and 
that these activities constitute very important means to improve 
education. The Secretary also believes that the priority gives proper 
attention to the role of development activities by twice explicitly 
requiring development activities and by requiring the center to 
contribute to the capacity of educational systems to provide students 
with equal opportunities to learn.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Six commenters recommended various changes in the 
description of the methods and kinds of research activities to be 
carried out by a center. These commenters recommended requiring the 
center to carry out research syntheses and secondary analyses of data 
collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and to 
do basic research, applied research, and development work. They 
suggested that syntheses of existing research serve to consolidate what 
is known about an educational problem and to guide further research and 
development of successful practices. The commenters also pointed out 
that secondary analyses of NCES databases offer the opportunity to 
examine a variety of research questions using data about large 
population samples in a timely, inexpensive manner. The recommendation 
that the center do basic and applied research and development 
activities was based on the commenters' view that all of these 
functions can contribute to improving education.
    One commenter supported--as appropriate for a center--the kinds of 
research and development activities described in the priority.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that syntheses sometimes serve 
an important function in the development of research project designs 
and in the creation of improvements in practice. The Secretary expects 
that a research and development center will include syntheses as part 
of its activities, but only if syntheses are not already available. 
Likewise, the Secretary expects research and development centers to use 
analyses of existing NCES databases in their research projects if these 
analyses would contribute to the center's research objectives. The 
Secretary notes that research and development centers are not the only 
means through which the Department supports both syntheses and 
secondary analyses of data collected by NCES.
    The Secretary also believes that the priority adequately represents 
the view that basic research, applied research, and development 
activities all play a legitimate role in the mission of research and 
development centers.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Four commenters raised questions about the priority's 
requirement that the center conduct at least one definitive research 
study, questioning the use of the term ``definitive'' in the priority. 
The commenters doubted whether it was realistic to expect a center to 
conduct this type of study and whether any study could guarantee the 
elimination of bias.
    Two other commenters supported this provision in the priority, one 
of them suggesting that the center could conduct several definitive 
research studies.
    Discussion: The Secretary understands the term ``definitive 
research study'' to refer to a study whose design, size, scope, and 
technical rigor are such that its findings cannot be ignored by the 
research community. These studies exert a major influence on subsequent 
research, development, policy, and practice in their topic area for a 
substantial period of time. The priority's requirement that a project 
conduct one or more definitive research studies is meant to reflect the 
Secretary's position that research and development centers are 
especially well-suited to carry out these activities, which require 
significant commitments of researchers' expertise, resources, and 
institutional support over a sustained period of time.
    The Secretary does not expect definitive studies to bring all 
research in a particular topic area to a close, nor does the Secretary 
believe that any research study's design can make it entirely 
invulnerable to later review and criticism on the basis of questionable 
or false assumptions that had been taken for granted by the leading 
researchers in the field. The Secretary does believe, however, that a 
center should commit to at least one research project sufficient 
efforts and resources to preclude leading experts from identifying any 
significant limitations in the design of the project.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Six commenters recommended that the center should require 
researchers and practitioners to collaborate with each other in the 
various stages of designing and implementing the center's research and 
development activities. The commenters felt that this collaboration 
could improve the direction of educational research.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that practitioners can play an 
important and meaningful role in the work of research and development 
centers. The instructions to prospective applicants in the application 
package encourage the proposed center to develop in its activities 
interaction between researchers and practitioners. Thus, applicants are 
encouraged to describe in their application proposals how they plan to 
approach the creation, design, and development of research projects.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Three commenters recommended that the priority refer to a 
comprehensive concept of educational success, including not only 
academic achievement, but also qualities such as creativity, personal 
and civic responsibility, self-reliance, and social competence. The 
commenters felt that these qualities are important and integral 
features of educational success and are implicit in the National 
Education Goals.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that such a concept of 
educational success is entirely consistent with the priority. The 
Secretary encourages applicants to identify and justify the elements of 
educational success implied in the design of their proposed research 
and development activities. The Secretary expects that applicants' 
concepts of educational success will contribute to the merits of their 
proposals.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Thirty-two commenters recommended changes in the proposed 
priority's five topics for research and development activities. The 
commenters recommended adding topics, replacing topics, dropping 
topics, and either widening or narrowing the focus of the center's 
research. The Secretary also received numerous comments agreeing with 
the proposed topics.
    Recommendations to drop topics or narrow the focus of the center's 
research were based on the opinion that the recommended change would 
give the center's work greater coherence, that a particular topic did 
not deserve the center's attention, or that the Department should be 
more specific about what the center should study. Recommendations to 
add topics or widen the center's focus were based on the opinion that 
the five proposed topics omitted important research issues, or that the 
state of existing research knowledge did not warrant the priority's 
being so directive.
    Examples of specific research topics or questions recommended by 
commenters included the following: an alternative set of topics using 
students, teachers and classrooms, schools, and systems as the units of 
analysis in one systematic, coherent approach; identifying practical 
solutions, including alterable factors such as the school and classroom 
environment, links between schools, families, and communities, and 
other school innovations; analyzing the effects of children's health, 
physiological development, and nutrition on their education; 
understanding what cognitive and personal characteristics children 
bring to the learning environment; studying student motivation and 
incentives to learn; examining the effects of violence on children and 
youth and their education; investigating the relationship between 
teachers' gender and ethnicity and student outcomes, in light of 
current trends in teacher recruitment and student characteristics; 
studying applied learning experiences that enable students to 
understand abstract ideas in a practical context; and examining the 
relationships between resources and achievement. All of these 
suggestions and others were put forward on the basis of their potential 
to increase the understanding of what might improve educational 
opportunities for students placed at risk of educational failure.
    Discussion: The Secretary recognizes that there is merit to many of 
the topics recommended for inclusion. In fact, the Secretary believes 
that many of these recommendations fall within the scope of the 
priority's topics and could be the subject of the center's research 
projects. The Secretary recognizes, also, the need to modify the 
proposed priority in order to clarify and give sharper focus to the 
final priority.
    Changes: The Secretary has modified the priority's topics to give 
greater prominence to instructional arrangements, to drop the study of 
fade-out effects as a separate topic, to reduce the number of topics 
overall, and to clarify the meaning of some of the topics. The 
Secretary is also using the comments to revise the guidance included in 
the application package to provide additional suggestions to 
prospective applicants about addressing the mission and priority of the 
center.
    Comments: Four commenters recommended that the center be required 
to collaborate or coordinate with other centers and institutions 
supported by the Department--e.g., laboratories and clearinghouses--in 
order to achieve the greatest practical benefit from the center's work.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that research and development 
centers should work with federally supported institutions and other 
entities to maximize the impact that their activities may have on 
improvements in the educational system. The Secretary believes that 
laboratories and clearinghouses certainly fit the description of the 
kinds of institutions with which centers should work. Instructions in 
the application package identify ways in which a proposed center is 
required to collaborate with these types of entities.
    Changes: None.
    Comments: Eight commenters recommended that the priority include 
dissemination activities in the center's functions; e.g., serving as a 
clearinghouse and developing dissemination strategies. One commenter 
stressed the importance of integrating research and dissemination 
activities in order to increase their effectiveness. Another commenter 
recommended an information system that is readily available to the 
classroom teacher. One commenter felt that the center should 
concentrate on developing dissemination strategies but should not 
devote significant resources to actually performing dissemination 
activities because other institutions could perform that function.
    Discussion: The Secretary believes that dissemination plays an 
integral role in research and development activities that promise to 
have a positive impact on improving education. The Secretary believes 
that the particular types of dissemination activities that will best 
accomplish this objective depend on (1) the nature of the research 
knowledge being generated and (2) the potential users of this 
knowledge. Instructions in the application package include guidance 
related to the center's responsibilities for dissemination.
    Changes: The Secretary has amended the priority to explicitly 
identify dissemination as a part of the center's work.

Priority

    Under 34 CFR 75.105(c)(3) the Secretary gives an absolute 
preference to applications that meet the following priority. The 
Secretary funds under this competition only applications that meet this 
absolute priority:
    The educational needs of children and youth placed at risk of 
educational failure.
    Under this priority, the Secretary supports one or more national 
research and development centers that--
     Conduct research and development activities concerning the 
educational needs of children and youth placed at risk of educational 
failure because of economic, community, and family factors, and 
personal experiences, including the lack of adequate school and other 
educational resources;
     Contribute to increasing the capacity of educational 
systems to provide all students with equal opportunities to learn and 
achieve educational success;
     Use research methods in some of their studies that involve 
advanced or innovative quantitative or qualitative techniques of 
sampling, data gathering, conceptualization and measurement of 
variables, data analyses, and interdisciplinary perspectives;
     Conduct one or more definitive research studies that have 
national implications and that will inform policy or practice across 
the nation; i.e., use large representative samples and rigorous 
scientific techniques that preclude biased results and support 
generalizable, replicable findings concerning the education of sizable 
populations of children or youth placed at risk of educational failure;
     Include research and development activities related to two 
or more of the following topics:
    (a) Understanding how individual cognitive and emotional 
characteristics of children or youth placed at risk of educational 
failure affect how these children or youth respond to their social and 
educational circumstances.
    (b) Creating personalized and caring educational environments.
    (c) Identifying effective ways of organizing schools, classrooms, 
and instructional arrangements.
    (d) Understanding how best to integrate all educational programs 
and staff development into a coherent learning environment for students 
placed at risk of educational failure; and
     Document, report, and disseminate their research 
activities in ways that will allow others to use the research results.
    Applicable Program Regulations: 34 CFR parts 706 and 708.

    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e.

    Dated: March 3, 1994.
Sharon Porter Robinson,
Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement.
[FR Doc. 94-5301 Filed 3-7-94; 8:45 am]
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