[Federal Register Volume 70, Number 115 (Thursday, June 16, 2005)]
[Notices]
[Pages 35072-35073]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 05-11921]



[[Page 35072]]

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DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION


Notice Inviting Comments on Priorities To Be Proposed to the 
National Board for Education Sciences of the Institute of Education 
Sciences

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education.

ACTION: Notice inviting comments on priorities to be proposed to the 
National Board for Education Sciences of the Institute of Education 
Sciences.

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SUMMARY: The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences 
(Institute) has developed priorities to guide the work of the 
Institute. The National Board for Education Sciences (Board) must 
approve the priorities, but before proposing the priorities to the 
Board, the Director must seek public comment on the priorities. The 
public comments will be provided to the Board prior to its action on 
the priorities.

DATES: We must receive your comments on or before August 16, 2005.

ADDRESSES: Address all comments about these proposed priorities to 
Elizabeth Payer, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of 
Education, 555 New Jersey Avenue, NW., room 602c, Washington, DC 20208. 
If you prefer to send your comments through the Internet, use the 
following address: [email protected]. We encourage you to submit 
comments electronically to ensure timely receipt. We also ask that you 
include:
    (1) ``Comment on Proposed Priorities of the Institute'' in the 
subject line of your e-mail message;
    (2) Your name, title, organization, postal address, telephone 
number, and the full text of your comments in your e-mail message; and
    (3) As an attachment to your e-mail message, the full text of your 
comments without your name, title, organization and contact 
information, so that we may more easily compile all of the comments we 
receive for review by members of the National Board for Education 
Sciences.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Payer. Telephone: (202) 219-
1310.
    If you use a telecommunications device for the deaf (TDD), you may 
call the Federal Relay Service (FRS) at 1-800-877-8339.
    Individuals with disabilities may obtain this document in an 
alternative format (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, or computer 
diskette) on request to the contact person listed under FOR FURTHER 
INFORMATION CONTACT.

Invitation To Comment

    We invite you to submit comments regarding these proposed 
priorities. To ensure that your comments have maximum effect in 
developing the final priorities, we urge you to identify clearly the 
specific proposed priority that each comment addresses.
    During and after the comment period, you may inspect all public 
comments about these proposed priorities in room 602c, 555 New Jersey 
Avenue, NW., Washington, DC, between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m., 
Eastern time, Monday through Friday of each week except Federal 
holidays.

Assistance to Individuals With Disabilities in Reviewing the Record

    On request, we will supply an appropriate aid, such as a reader or 
print magnifier, to an individual with a disability who needs 
assistance to review the comments or other documents in the public 
record for these proposed priorities. If you want to schedule an 
appointment for this type of aid, please contact the person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (20 U.S.C. 9516) requires 
that the Director of the Institute propose to the Board priorities for 
the Institute. The Director is to identify topics that require long 
term research and topics that are focused on understanding and solving 
education problems and issues, including those associated with the 
goals and requirements established in the Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Act, as amended by the Individuals with Disabilities 
Education Improvement Act of 2004; the Elementary and Secondary 
Education Act of 1965, as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 
2001; and the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended, such as closing 
the achievement gap; ensuring that all children have the ability to 
obtain a high-quality education and reach, at a minimum, proficiency on 
State standards and assessments; and ensuring access to, and 
opportunities for, postsecondary education.
    Before submitting proposed priorities to the Board, the Director 
must make the priorities available to the public for comment for not 
less than 60 days. Each comment submitted must be provided to the 
Board.
    The Director anticipates submitting to the Board proposed 
priorities for the Institute at its next meeting to be held on 
September 6-7, 2005.
    The Board must approve or disapprove the priorities for the 
Institute proposed by the Director, including any necessary revision of 
the priorities. Approved priorities are to be transmitted to 
appropriate congressional committees by the Board.
    The Director will publish in the Federal Register the Institute's 
plan for addressing the priorities and make it available for comment 
for not less than 60 days.

Proposed Priorities

    The long-term goals associated with the Institute's priorities are 
threefold: First, to develop or identify a substantial number of 
programs, practices, policies, and approaches that are effective in 
enhancing academic achievement, and that are widely deployed and well-
implemented; second, to identify what does not work and what is 
problematic, and thereby encourage innovation and further research; and 
third, to develop dissemination strategies and sources of information 
on the results of education research that are routinely used by 
policymakers, educators, and the general public when making education 
decisions. By providing an independent, scientific base of evidence, 
the Institute aims to further the transformation of education into an 
evidence-based field, and thereby enable the nation to educate all of 
its students in an effective manner.
    In pursuit of its goals, the Institute will support research, 
conduct evaluations, and compile statistics in education that conform 
to rigorous scientific standards, and will disseminate and promote the 
use of research in forms and through activities that are objective, 
free of bias in their interpretation, and readily accessible. Given 
these goals, we invite you to submit comments regarding the priorities 
proposed here.
    The Institute's over-arching priority is research that contributes 
to improved academic achievement for all students, and particularly for 
those students whose education prospects are hindered by inadequate 
education services and conditions associated with poverty, race/
ethnicity, limited English proficiency, disability, and family 
circumstance.
    With academic achievement as the major priority, the Institute will 
focus on outcomes that differ by periods of education. In the infancy 
and preschool period, the outcomes of interest will be those that 
enhance readiness for schooling, for example, language skills. In 
kindergarten through 12th grade, the

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core academic outcomes of reading and writing, mathematics, and science 
will be emphasized, as will discipline and social interactions within 
schools that support learning. At the post-secondary level, the focus 
will be on enrollment in and completion of programs that prepare 
students for rewarding and constructive careers. The same outcomes are 
emphasized for students with disabilities across each of these periods. 
The acquisition of basic skills by adults with low levels of education 
is also of interest, as is the learning of skills that support 
independent living for individuals with significant cognitive 
disabilities.
    In conducting research on factors that affect the academic outcomes 
on which it focuses, the Institute will concentrate on conditions that 
are within the control of the education system, with the aim of 
identifying, developing, and validating effective education programs, 
practices, policies, and approaches. Conditions that are of greatest 
interest to the Institute are in the areas of curriculum, instruction, 
assessment, the quality of the teaching and administrative workforce, 
and the systems and policies that affect these factors and their 
interrelationships, such as accountability systems and education 
options for parents.
    The successful pursuit of the Institute's goals and priorities 
requires increased capacity to produce and use rigorous education 
research. To that end, the Institute's priorities include support of 
doctoral and post-doctoral training in the education sciences, 
development and refinement of education research methods, and expansion 
for research purposes of longitudinal databases that link individual 
student data to information on conditions that can affect student 
outcomes, such as curriculum. To assure increased capacity to use and 
apply the results of research, the Institute will support systematic 
reviews of evidence, enhanced access to findings through advanced 
electronic systems, and outreach to parents, educators, students, 
policymakers, and the general public.
    These are not exclusive or absolute priorities: To the extent that 
resources permit and the Institute's priorities are being adequately 
addressed, the Institute may address other important education issues.

Intergovernmental Review

    This program is not subject to Executive Order 12372 and the 
regulations in 34 CFR part 79.

Electronic Access to This Document

    You may view this document, as well as all other documents of this 
Department published in the Federal Register, in text or Adobe Portable 
Document Format (PDF) on the Internet at the following site: http://www.ed.gov/news/fedregister.
    To use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available 
free at this site. If you have questions about using PDF, call the U.S. 
Government Printing Office (GPO), toll free, at 1-888-293-6498; or in 
the Washington, DC, area at (202) 512-1530.
    You may also view this document in text [Word and PDF] at the 
following site: http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/news.html.


    Note: The official version of this document is the document 
published in the Federal Register. Free Internet access to the 
official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of Federal 
Regulations is available on GPO Access at: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/nara/index.html.


(Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance number does not apply.)


    Program Authority: 20 U.S.C. 9501 et seq.

    Dated: June 13, 2005.
Grover J. Whitehurst,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
[FR Doc. 05-11921 Filed 6-15-05; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4001-01-P