Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI)

The Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) is a federal partnership that includes the Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI), the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), and the National Science Foundation (NSF). This web-page is designed to provide an overview of IERI by summarizing the following aspects of the program:

• Mission and Goal
• Focus Areas
• Review Criteria
• Next Competition and Types of Awards

Contact information for individuals from each of the three participating agencies is provided at the end of this document.

Mission and Goal

The mission of the IERI is to improve education in mathematics, reading, and the sciences by supporting a well-focused, rigorous program of research. IERI recognizes that educational research must be attentive to the context in which educators do their work, pushing beyond controlled laboratory studies to ensure adaptability to classroom settings. Research of this kind therefore seeks to balance the insights of scientific knowledge against the realities of varied educational contexts.

The specific programmatic goal of IERI is to increase knowledge of "scaling up" by supporting research that investigates the effectiveness of educational interventions in reading, mathematics, and the sciences as they are implemented in varied school settings with diverse student populations. The ultimate aim of IERI is to identify the conditions under which evidence-based interventions to improve preK-12 student learning succeed when applied on a large scale. It is the focus on scaling up as a topic of investigation that gives IERI its distinct identity as a federally sponsored program of research. The study of scaling up requires investigators to integrate rigorous analysis of the learning outcomes related to specific educational interventions with knowledge of the logistical, organizational, political, and economic demands of large-scale implementations.

Focus Areas

IERI has identified reading, mathematics, and the sciences as the three focus areas in which studies of scaling up may be proposed. Applicants may propose studies of scale up in one area or in some combination of areas (e.g., reading and science for an investigation of scientific literacy; mathematics and science for an investigation of scientific problem-solving skills). While studies supported by IERI typically focus on K-12 populations, research focused on younger populations of students (e.g., preschool and kindergarten) or older populations of student (e.g., pre-service teacher training) are also considered appropriate.

Review Criteria

Review criteria used to judge the merit of IERI proposals are concerned with:

1. The project's focus on scaling up
2. Evidence of effectiveness prior to scaling up
3. The methodological rigor of research designs and measurements
4. The development of an interdisciplinary approach

Next Competition and Types of Awards

We anticipate that the next IERI program announcement will be issued by January or February of 2003, contingent upon the availability of funds. Applications will be due approximately three months following the release of the program announcement. IERI invites prospective grantees to submit their projects as either Phase I or Phase II projects. Phase I awards, granted for up to 2 years, provide investigators with an opportunity to prepare for broad scale-up. Phase II awards, granted for up to 5 years, are for projects that are fully prepared to move an intervention to scale in significant numbers of complex educational settings.

The full program announcement for the most recent competition (closed on May 15, 2002) may be found at the following web address: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2002/nsf02062/nsf02062.html

For Additional Information, contact:

Mark Constas, Ph.D.
Program Director
Interagency Education Research Initiative
Office of Educational Research and Improvement
U.S. Department of Education
555 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20208
Telephone: 202-219-1373
E-mail: Mark.Constas@ed.gov

Reid Lyon, Ph.D.
Section Chief
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
6100 Executive Building, Room 4B05, 9000 Rockville Pike
Bethesda, MD 20892
Telephone: 301-496-9849
E-mail: rl60a@nih.gov.

Michael E. Martinez, Ph.D.
Program Director
National Science Foundation
Research, Evaluation, and Communication
Room 855
4201 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA 22230
Telephone: 703-292-4614
E-mail: mmartine@nsf.gov

This page last modified July 18, 2002 (jca)