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

Building Knowledge for a Nation of Learners: A Framework for Education Research - 1997

Prologue

What Do We Need To Know?

I started my career as a scientist and grew to become a teacher. It was natural for me to use research to develop my teaching. One thing I have learned from research--and confirmed in my own classroom--is that when teachers buy into what they are teaching, students catch their enthusiasm.... My students know that I work for them, and that each and every one is important and has talents and abilities that can make our future better.

Bill Martin
Eighth-Grade Science Teacher
Fort Payne Middle School
Fort Payne, Alabama

We Americans pin our fondest hopes on education. As a noted philosopher once observed, education in this country plays a "different and, politically, incomparably more important role than in other countries" because it mirrors a challenge that is so deeply embedded in the American experience--creating a new nation.^l Americans have long been bent on solving all kinds of problems--social, political, and economic--by educational means. Decade after decade, we have staged our most momentous national dramas in schoolyards and classrooms.² When the Soviets launched Sputnik, Americans reacted by demanding better schools. Congress responded by passing landmark education legislation. When the civil rights movement challenged the status quo, public schools and universities became the setting for fierce tests of national will.

Today, rapid political and technological change around the world has created another crisis of confidence and another moment of opportunity. Will Americans be ready to meet the demands of a new era? Will our young people be equipped for economic survival and growth in the 21st century? Can we strengthen the bonds among people from different racial, ethnic, cultural, and socioeconomic groups and sustain the nation's democratic institutions? Responding to these challenges, Americans have once again hoisted education reform to the top of national and local agendas.

Opinion differs on the emphases and methods of schooling and on the best use of the nation's resources. Some observers of education want greater investment in mathematics and science, while others stress the need to bolster arts education. Some want more weight placed on values and character formation; others believe that schools should adhere to a more narrowly conceived educational mission. But large numbers of Americans--parents, teachers, employers, scholars--are moving toward consensus on at least one point: in order to meet new challenges in the workplace and in civic life, America's learners will need a firm grasp of basic competencies, a broad general knowledge of their world, and the skills to respond to the rapid generation of new knowledge. Every recent report on education calls upon schools to help students become not only knowledgeable adults, but also reflective analysts, independent problem solvers, and effective team players.

One thing is clear: if the nation's schools and colleges are to meet these challenges, we cannot afford hit or miss approaches driven by fads and fallacies. We need solid scientific evidence about what works, for whom, and under what conditions.

We are poised at a unique moment in the history of educational research and development. The level of public interest in improving America's schools is unprecedented, a solid body of education research now exists upon which to build new knowledge, and evidence is mounting that past research has already led to important advances in education practice. Moreover, the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) has a clear mandate to lead the effort to provide a focus for educational research and development across the nation.³ This mandate was issued by the 103rd Congress when, in 1994, it charged the Assistant Secretary for Educational Research and Improvement and the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board (the Board) to develop a biennial plan to set forth national education research priorities.⁴

The national education research priorities that follow are the first response to Congress' request. To be sure, the idea of setting a research and development agenda is not new: OERI has taken part in numerous cooperative efforts to define and augment the role of research and development in American education. But this is the first attempt to develop a comprehensive vision of the nation's needs for knowledge about education, and to set clear priorities for education research geared to meeting those needs.

This document sets forth seven national priorities for research in education developed by the Assistant Secretary and the Board:

Improving learning and development in early childhood so that all children can enter kindergarten prepared to learn and succeed in elementary and secondary schools.
Improving curriculum, instruction, assessment, and student learning at all levels of education to promote high academic achievement, problem-solving abilities, creativity, and the motivation for further learning.
Ensuring effective teaching by expanding the supply of potential teachers, improving teacher preparation, and promoting career-long professional development at all levels of education.
Strengthening schools, particularly middle and high schools, as institutions capable of engaging young people as active and responsible learners.
Supporting schools to effectively prepare diverse populations to meet high standards for knowledge, skills, and productivity, and to participate fully in American economic, cultural, social, and civic life.
Promoting learning in informal and formal settings, and building the connections that cause out-of-school experiences to contribute to in-school achievement.
Understanding the changing requirements for adult competence in civic, work, and social contexts and how these requirements affect learning and the futures of individuals in the nation.

In establishing these priorities, the Assistant Secretary and the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board set out to do more than create an agenda for a federal agency. The priorities they have identified constitute a program of research that can inspire the work of education researchers throughout the nation. The results of their work can guide the efforts of people in all parts of the nation's educational enterprise as they work to improve America's schools. These priorities suggest directions for future education research and investment by pointing to crossroads where the greatest public concern intersects with important scientific opportunity.

The leadership role of the Assistant Secretary and the Board in establishing priorities and putting them to work entails much more than presenting them in this report. With this publication, the Assistant Secretary and the Board are initiating a national conversation about the importance of these priorities and the roles that interested groups and individuals can play. Progress toward implementing the priorities will be reviewed every 2 years, and adjustments will be made. Over time, the priorities may change as substantial progress is made in some areas and pressing needs arise in others.

These priorities grew out of a nearly 3-year process of deliberation and consultation. The deliberations that led to these seven priorities included 45 public discussions with more than 500 people representing 30 groups. The participants included parents, teachers, business people, students, and researchers inside and outside the nation's formal education enterprise. The Assistant Secretary and the Board asked each group what new knowledge was needed to improve education over the next 5,10, and 15 years.

The Assistant Secretary and the Board sought to create a stronger research and development capacity by building on existing knowledge and making continual improvement part of the culture of every public school and institution of higher learning. Therefore, clear criteria guided the selection of priorities from the diverse and often competing ideas that arose from the public discussions. Each priority reflects an authentic and important educational need, the solution of which would be of national significance. Each priority addresses critical problems, affects large numbers of students, or involves major investments in education. And in addressing each priority, research is likely to result in substantial new knowledge that has the potential to significantly improve the education of our children.

Finally, three important issues emerged that need to be addressed within each priority:

The Need To Ensure Equity and Reflect Diversity

The nation especially needs research that can lead to better results for those who have tended to achieve at lower levels. In particular, research needs to take into account the impact of poverty on learners and their schools. Studies have repeatedly established that students from low-income families must, from their earliest years, scale greater hurdles than others to secure educational services, to achieve academically, and to succeed in the labor force. Recent research confirms that poverty has an impact on curricula, the ways technology is introduced into instruction, the ways schools are organized, the resources available to teachers, access to extracurricular programs and after-school jobs, safety in school, and many other factors.⁵ To be useful, therefore, research must lead to educational improvement strategies that take into account differences among students, their schools, and their communities.

The Importance of the Family

Parents and families are their children's first and most important teachers. We need research that can help us understand how to build better connections between home and school. We need to know more about why some families and children succeed in settings where most do not. We need to understand how parents can best encourage and support learning. We need research that can lead to more effective cooperation among families, communities, and schools to strengthen learning and teaching. And we need insight into the ways that family support programs can strengthen families' capacities to cope and even thrive during periods of stress.

The Promise of Educational Technologies

Emerging technologies have the potential to support and motivate learning, creativity, and problem-solving. Inventively infused into active learning, they can open up the world for learners of all ages, in every setting; but when new technologies are bolted onto uninspiring curricula or mind-numbing drill, they can deaden educational experience. We need research that points toward ways to increase learners' access to educational technologies and to narrow the divide between technology "haves" and "have-nots." We also need to reconsider many facets of educational practice across all of the priorities with a view toward enhancing the potential and minimizing the risks of educational technologies.

In the document that follows, chapter 1, "Research for a Changing World," discusses the needs of American learners as we approach the 21st century and proposes an approach to educational research geared to meeting those needs. Chapter 2, "An Agenda for the Nation," shows how this approach can be applied to each of the seven national education research priorities. Chapter 3, "Putting the Priorities to Work," suggests how people in many walks of life, not only teachers and parents, can play a role in formulating, advancing, and benefiting from the nation's education research agenda.

The national education research priorities reflect the commitment of the U.S. Department of Education and the Board to inform, enrich, and strengthen all of America's educational institutions and to benefit all of America's learners. The priorities express particular confidence in and hope for the enterprise of public education. We often hear today that public schools should become more like something else: more like private enterprise, more like schools in other countries, more like private or parochial schools. These priorities proceed from the belief that public schools should become, in spirit and in practice, more public. They need to be more inclusive in their improvement efforts; more committed to meeting the needs of learners, their families, and communities; and more responsive to the evolving priorities and concerns of the nation as we move into a new century. Our nation has the capacity to mount the educational research efforts called for by these priorities--efforts that meet rigorous scientific standards and produce findings that are bold, useful, and responsive to important questions of the day.
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[National Priorities for Research in Education]

[Chapter 1: Research for a Changing World]