[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 22 (Thursday, February 2, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 7084-7085]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-02182]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

[Docket ID ED-2023-IES-0011]


Request for Information on Topics To Address via the National 
Center for Education Research's R&D Centers

AGENCY: Institute of Education Sciences, Department of Education.

ACTION: Request for information.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: The National Center for Education Research (NCER), a center 
within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), is charged with 
sponsoring sustained research that will lead to the accumulation of 
knowledge and understanding of the key issues facing education in the 
21st century. In carrying out these activities, NCER is required to 
support not less than 8 Research and Development Centers (R&D Centers) 
focused on one or more of 11 specified topics (see the list of topics 
included below in the Background section or see the Education Sciences 
Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA)). The R&D Centers produce and disseminate 
rigorous evidence and products that provide practical solutions to 
important educational problems in the United States. They also provide 
national leadership in defining research and development directions 
within their topics. Through this request for information (RFI), NCER 
is soliciting public input as we seek to identify pressing questions 
within each of these broad topic areas that an R&D Center would be 
well-suited to address.

DATES: We must receive your comments by March 6, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking 
Portal at regulations.gov. However, if you require an accommodation or 
cannot otherwise submit your comments via regulations.gov, please 
contact the program contact person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION 
CONTACT. The Department will not accept comments by email or by fax. To 
ensure that the Department does not receive duplicate copies, please 
submit your comments only once. Additionally, please include the Docket 
ID at the top of your comments.
    Federal eRulemaking Portal: Go to www.regulations.gov to submit 
your comments electronically. Information on using Regulations.gov, 
including instructions for accessing agency documents, submitting 
comments, and viewing the docket, is available on the site under the 
``FAQ'' tab.
    Privacy Note: The Department's policy for comments received from 
members of the public is to make these submissions available for public 
viewing in their entirety on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Therefore, commenters should be careful to include 
in their comments only information that they wish to make publicly 
available. We encourage, but do not require, that each respondent 
include their name, title, institution or affiliation, and the name, 
title, mailing and email addresses, and telephone number of a contact 
person for the institution or affiliation, if any.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth Albro, Commissioner, 
National Center for Education Research, Institute of Education 
Sciences, U.S Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, 
Washington, DC 20202-7240. Telephone: (202) 245-8495. You may also 
email your questions to [email protected], but as described above, 
comments must be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
regulations.gov.
    If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech disability and 
wish to access telecommunications relay services, please dial 7-1-1.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background

    Section 131(b)(1) of ESRA (20 U.S.C. 9531(b)(1)) describes the 
mission of NCER, a center within the U.S. Department of Education's 
Institute of Education Sciences. NCER is directed to sponsor sustained 
research that will lead to the accumulation of knowledge and 
understanding of education to--
    (A) Ensure that all children have access to a high-quality 
education;
    (B) Improve student academic achievement, including through the use 
of educational technology;
    (C) Close the achievement gap between high-performing and low-
performing students through the improvement of teaching and learning of 
reading, writing, mathematics, science, and other academic subjects; 
and
    (D) Improve access to, and opportunity for, postsecondary 
education.
    As part of our mission to support sustained research, ESRA, sec. 
133(c)(1) (20 U.S.C. 9533(c)(1)), directs NCER to support not less than 
8 R&D Centers and to assign each center to at least 1 of the 11 topics 
described in ESRA sec. 133(c)(2). The 11 topics are:
    (A) Adult literacy.
    (B) Assessment, standards, and accountability research.
    (C) Early childhood development and education.
    (D) English language learners research.
    (E) Improving low achieving schools.
    (F) Innovation in education reform.
    (G) State and local policy.
    (H) Postsecondary education and training.
    (I) Rural education.
    (J) Teacher quality.
    (K) Reading and literacy.
    The duties of R&D Centers are to address areas of national need, 
and to incorporate the potential or existing role of educational 
technology, where appropriate, in achieving the goals of each center 
(ESRA, Sec. 133(c)(3)). In addition, ESRA Sec. 133(3)(7) specifies that 
research conducted by the R&D

[[Page 7085]]

Centers is to be disaggregated by age, race, gender, and socioeconomic 
background to the extent feasible. ESRA Sec. 133(c)(4) specifies that 
support for a national research and development center shall be for a 
period of not more than 5 years.
    Currently, NCER is supporting R&D Centers and Research Networks 
that focus on the topics of adult literacy, English language learners 
research, innovation in education reform, State and local policy, 
postsecondary education and training, rural education, teacher quality, 
and reading and literacy. NCER can support additional R&D Centers 
addressing different research questions within these same topics as 
well as R&D Centers addressing other topics from the list of 11, above. 
Information about NCER's active and completed R&D Centers is available 
here: https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/research/randdCenters.asp.
    Through this RFI, we seek public comment and input on the highest 
priority research questions within each of the 11 topics that could be 
addressed by new R&D Centers, as outlined in the Solicitation of 
Comments section.
    This is a request for information only. This RFI is not a request 
for proposals (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP or a notice inviting 
applications (NIA). This RFI does not commit the Department to contract 
for any supply or service whatsoever. Further, we are not seeking 
proposals and will not accept unsolicited proposals for R&D Centers. 
The Department will not pay for any information or administrative costs 
that you may incur in responding to this RFI. The documents and 
information submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned.
    We will review every comment, and the comments in response to this 
RFI will be publicly available on the Federal eRulemaking Portal at 
www.regulations.gov. Please note that IES will not directly respond to 
comments.

Solicitation of Comments

    We encourage the public, particularly those who are aware of key 
research questions in any of the 11 topic areas, to address the 
following questions in their comments:
    (1) Of the 11 topics, which three are the most pressing to invest 
in now, and why?
    (2) Within the three topics identified in response to item (1), on 
what priority research questions could a new R&D Center focus over a 5-
year project period?
    (3) How would your proposed research questions advance the core 
mission of NCER's program of research, described in the background 
section of this document?
    (4) Are the identified priority research questions likely to yield 
any products or insights that could be readily shared and taken up by 
practitioners and policymakers?
    Accessible Format: By request to the program contact person listed 
under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT, individuals with disabilities 
can obtain this document in an accessible format. The Department will 
provide the requestor with an accessible format that may include Rich 
Text Format (RTF) or text format (txt), a thumb drive, an MP3 file, 
braille, large print, audiotape, or compact disc, or other accessible 
format.
    Electronic Access to This Document: The official version of this 
document is the document published in the Federal Register. You may 
access the official edition of the Federal Register and the Code of 
Federal Regulations at www.govinfo.gov. At this site you can view this 
document, as well as all other documents of this Department published 
in the Federal Register, in text or Portable Document Format (PDF). To 
use PDF you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is available free at 
the site.
    You may also access documents of the Department published in the 
Federal Register by using the article search feature at 
www.federalregister.gov. Specifically, through the advanced search 
feature at this site, you can limit your search to documents published 
by the Department.

Mark Schneider,
Director, Institute of Education Sciences.
[FR Doc. 2023-02182 Filed 2-1-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4000-01-P