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Mr. Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss the President's fiscal year 2000 budget request for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). We are requesting a total of $1.5 billion, an increase of $498 million over the 1999 appropriation, which would support the programs and activities in the Education Research, Statistics, and Improvement account, as well as 21st Century Community Learning Centers and the educational technology programs in the Education Reform account administered by OERI. These latter programs do not include the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund.
Approximately $25 million of the requested increase will be devoted to the Interagency Education Research Initiative - initiated this year as a collaborative effort among the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Research will focus on Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning to Improve Achievement in Reading and Mathematics. Our goals are to ensure that (1) all children come to school ready to learn reading and mathematics; (2) all children acquire the foundations of mathematics and reading in grades K-3; and (3) all teachers (K-12) have the content and pedagogic skills to teach reading, mathematics, and science. This is the largest joint program of research ever attempted by this group of agencies.
Approximately $20 million will support other new research activities designed to address critical problems faced by State and local policymakers and practitioners. These projects will focus on (a) evaluating and improving models of comprehensive school reform, (b) learning how Spanish speaking children best learn to read in English, (c) expanding our knowledge of effective assessment and instruction for adolescent and adult literacy, and (d) developing technology tools for use in the classroom.
Research has had significant, positive impacts on the day-to-day work of teachers and schools. Over the last 10 to 15 years, various types of research have generated important new insights into teaching and learning. These discoveries, especially in cognitive science, present opportunities to achieve even greater and more lasting impacts for students. To seize these opportunities, we must invest in research programs specifically designed to apply these discoveries in large numbers of schools. The primary goal is to develop the implementation strategies that lead to the broad adoption of these new ideas about teaching and learning.
This work will include much more extensive use of research methods such as large-scale field studies. It will require partnerships and coordination between researchers from different disciplines, and between researchers and educators. It will take time to complete; difficult questions can't be answered overnight. It will also be expensive. But if we are serious about helping all students to achieve at high levels, then we must be willing to invest in programs of research that attack very specific questions about school reform which give rise to clear guidance for teachers and other educators.
The demand for these services is expected to increase dramatically as the E-rate helps bring thousands of schools, teachers, and students onto the Internet in the next several years. A strong system of dissemination, utilizing the most modern technologies, is critical to providing educators with the resources they need to implement standards-based reforms.
For fiscal year 2000, we are requesting an increase of $9.5 million for Statistics, an increase that is necessitated largely by the recent authorization of the Higher Education Act. More than half of this amount will be used for the redesign of the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a comprehensive collection system that encompasses approximately 11,000 postsecondary institutions. The increase is needed for designing, collecting, processing, and reporting additional data. Also included are funds to support a national study of postsecondary expenditures, the dissemination of information to parents and students that would allow them to make informed decisions based on the costs for typical full-time undergraduate study, and the development of a higher education "market basket" that identifies the items that comprise the costs of higher education.
Using the requested funding increase of $4.5 million, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) would implement several new initiatives. With the commitment to including all States and jurisdictions in NAEP 2000, there is a concomitant obligation to provide assistance and support to participating States and to develop individual State capacity to interpret, report, and use NAEP data. The Department plans to link State assessment to NAEP for analysis and reporting in years that tests are not administered, enhance NAEP samples for sub-State reporting, assist States in using NAEP data for program improvement, and build State-level skills in the areas of testing and measurement. NAEP would also develop new assessments in reading that would permit jurisdictions to either administer the assessment in non-assessment years for independent measures of progress based on national standards or to link their own assessments to NAEP for estimating NAEP scores on an ongoing basis.
High quality professional development is essential if teachers are to be prepared to help students learn to higher standards. Increased funding will support new activities under America Counts, a major new initiative to ensure that students master math fundamentals so that they are prepared to take rigorous mathematics and science courses in high school and college.
Of the funds requested, $6 million would support grants to examine what teachers in a district need to know and be able to do to improve student achievement in math, and the professional development needed to bring teachers to that level. These projects will develop materials and tools to help educators make the research-based judgments necessary to develop effective mathematics professional development programs, and then pilot them in school districts.
In addition, $700,000 of the increase will support two annual award programs that identify exceptional professional development programs in individual schools, school districts, institutions of higher education, or alternative certification programs. Both programs will use impact on student achievement as a major criterion for determining awards.
This request maintains $16 million to support the National Board for Professional Teaching Standard's continued development of subject area standards and assessments, and $2.5 million to subsidize candidate fees. Applications last year reached an unprecedented high, resulting in as many certification awards as had been made in all previous years combined, for a total of more than 1,800 certified teachers. Many State and local education agencies are seeking to improve teacher quality by offering financial incentives to teachers who achieve national certification.
In addition to these efforts, we propose to increase funding of the 10 Eisenhower Regional Mathematics and Science Education Consortia by $2.5 million to permit each consortium to provide more technical assistance and disseminate more information and resources related to the action strategy for improving teaching and learning in mathematics and science.
The request also includes funds to cover continuation costs for the Technology Innovation Challenge Grants program, and will support a new competition for the Star Schools program. Through these programs, the Department will continue to make progress towards reaching its four technology goals: to provide classrooms with multimedia computers, Internet access, high-quality software and curriculum resources, and teachers with the training and support to use the technology effectively to improve student learning.
In 2000, priority will be given to districts with policies for ending social promotion, which is the practice of promoting students to the next grade level regardless of whether they have mastered the material. This practice, as well as grade retention, fails to help students learn the skills they need. Instead, schools must develop comprehensive strategies to provide regular assessments and enhanced support services for students at risk of not meeting State and local standards. The 21st Century Community Learning Centers program can play a major role in helping all students succeed, by enabling schools to provide academic assistance such as tutoring and summer school, in addition to enrichment and recreational activities for all students.
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