A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

OERI Bulletin - Summer 1995

From the Assistant Secretary

The recent swearing in of the new National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board (the "Board") represents a landmark development in OERI's reinvention efforts. OERI is now connected to the world of its customers--teachers, school administrators, and researchers of America--in a fundamental way. This 15-member board contains an equal balance of these important stakeholders and will help guide the destiny of the federal research enterprise into the next century (see Secretary Riley Appoints Research Policy & Priorities Board).

With the Board, we now have in place the structure necessary to keep OERI focused on its core mission: the production and application of knowledge capable of improving student achievement. The Board's arrival also brings to an end two decades of charges that OERI-funded research has been diminished by partisan interference.

Among the many tasks assigned to the Board, several are of paramount importance:

Work collaboratively with OERI to determine the priorities that should guide its work;
Review and approve a 5-, 10- and 15-year research priorities plan;
Review and approve standards for the conduct and evaluation of all research and development and dissemination; and
Regularly review, evaluate, and publicly comment on the implementation of its recommended priorities by the Department and the Congress.

This work will be intense over the next 6 months and, ultimately, will provide the foundation for OERI's future. It will contain two key hallmarks of the new OERI: the widest possible public participation and the highest possible commitment to quality and integrity.

Our first board meeting has shown us that the Board is as committed as I am to achieving these goals. The Congress understood that if federally sponsored educational research and development were to assume its rightful status as a major contributor to progress in education, it could only be achieved through collaboration with just such a Board.

The distinguished men and women who have agreed to join the Board for terms ranging from 3 to 6 years will not be starting from a blank slate. We have been preparing the ground necessary to support the development of a customer-driven research and development priorities plan for more than a year. In addition to the six public meetings OERI held around the country, we also solicited wide public comment on all aspects of our work, including our imminent center and regional educational laboratory competitions. Through these efforts, we now know how our constituents think OERI might best carry out its work, and our program policies and priorities will reflect what they think.

The months ahead will be busy ones for us as the Board works in subcommittees to ensure that the major tasks before us are accomplished. I look forward to reporting on our continuing progress.

Sharon P. Robinson
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