The Future of Education Research at IES Advancing an Equity-Oriented Science (2022) / Chapter Skim
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5 Research Topics for NCER and NCSER Grants
5 Research Topics for NCER and NCSER Grants
Pages 101-128
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From page 101... ...
and National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) in research across topics over time.
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From page 102... ...
. Across all topics in the Education Research and Special Education Research Grants competitions, applicants are invited to submit proposals to any of IES's five project types: Exploration, Development and Innovation, Initial Efficacy and Follow-up, Replication/Effectiveness,1 and Measurement.
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From page 103... ...
As a result, NCSER has in recent years aimed to broaden the kinds of research it supports by removing language that specifies needed research.3 Finally, in addition to their lists of standing topics, NCER and NCSER also include special topics within the Education Research Grants and Special Education Research Grants competitions to respond to pressing issues in the field, or to jumpstart research in areas that have not received 3 This sentence was modified after release of the report to IES to correct information about the actions that NCSER has taken to broaden the kinds of research it supports.
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Under the existing structure, studies designed toward certain project types lend themselves to demonstrating rigor as described and prioritized by IES (see Chapter 2)
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In recent RFAs, NCSER has even expressly called for a concerted focus on teacher education research. So, while the current topic structure looks as though it could fund this work, in practice, teacher education research has largely gone unfunded.
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In sum, we argue that the lack of research on teacher education is not one that could be fixed through the mechanism of topics alone. NCER and NCSER could explicitly call out the need for teacher education research -- which may be a good idea in its own right -- but without making broader changes to their project type structure and to the outcomes they prioritize, it is unlikely that things would change much beyond the current situation.
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From page 107... ...
Where supply and demand are not aligned, IES can then adapt its research portfolio by adjusting its topic by project type matrix, as well as the questions embedded within those topics and project types. Although research priority setting is a complex process lacking consensus on best practices, some common themes emerge, such as inclusive stakeholder engagement, relevant criteria and methods for deciding on priorities, and transparency (Viergever et al., 2010; Sibbald, et al., 2009)
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In Chapter 4, we also discussed the import of funding research syntheses within a new Knowledge Mobilization project type. Conducting these syntheses across the different goals could illuminate gaps or surpluses in the progression of research.
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Civil Rights Policy and Practices Education researchers have produced valuable empirical and conceptual studies on the context of equity in education over the past 20 years. From this literature, it is clear that U.S.
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. Given the challenges within K–12 schooling and for students with disabilities from preschool through age 21, along with the deepening and persistent inequalities that shape school systems, the teaching force, and the learning conditions within and across schools, it is imperative to support and strengthen different epistemological and methodological approaches for investigating issues at the intersection of education and civil rights.
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From page 111... ...
To these ends, IES could better support research on equity and civil rights policies by funding research that responds to the education field's knowledge of how racial injustice in the structures, processes, and practices of schools and systems have an impact on learning and lifetime outcomes by supporting new research on what schools and other education settings can do to mitigate these effects. This might include, for example, research on • School discipline: Disparities in discipline are well documented, and schools are engaged in a variety of strategies intended to reduce or eliminate these disparities.
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The committee recognized the need for research addressing teacher education (TEd) and professional development (PD)
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• Developing measures that are proximal to the goals of teacher education and professional development. As an example, recent advances have been made in measuring teacher content knowledge and establishing parameters for using teacher content knowledge as an outcome measure in cluster randomized trials (e.g., Kelcey et al., 2017; Phelps et al., 2016)
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These systemic barriers disadvantage general and special education teachers while the expectations for coordi nated collaborative work continue to increase (e.g., Response to Intervention and Multi-tiered system of supports models)
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Where education technology was available, the experience of remote learning forced by the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 has shown the deep limitations of current education technology infrastructure, products, practices, and research (Consortium for School Networking, 2021; Sahni et al., 2021; Education Endowment Foundation, 2020; Gallagher & Cottingham, 2020)
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The committee therefore believes that Education Technology proposals should be invited that investigate these broader topics, and that these proposals should be reviewed by a dedicated Education Technology panel. The committee expressed a sense of urgency for this kind of education technology research, as the recognition of the importance of education technology as a result of remote schooling during the pandemic has already begun to result in the development of many new digital tools for learning, support of teachers, and support of schools, which would benefit from this kind of research.
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, ensuring that such research is not extractive and has relevance across a broad range of populations and contexts takes on even greater importance. Questions that should be addressed in research on Education Technology supported by NCER and NCSER include, but are not limited to • Development of new pedagogies and theoretical approaches ad dressing diversity, equity, and inclusion in education technology; • Ethically aligned design processes for education technology that benefit from knowledge mobilization and focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion; • Meaningful integration of responsible, accountable, and transpar ent analytics in learning environments; • Approaches to personalization, adaptivity, and adaptability that incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion; focus on transparency; and go beyond learning progressions and adapting for learners' current level of knowledge; • Use of artificial intelligence-based approaches for novel education technology solutions, including personalization, adaptivity, and adaptability; • Measurement approaches for learning outcomes, as well as learner state and learner trait variables, using longitudinal log data from education technology environments; • Approaches to reliably measuring accountability/attendance versus engagement versus competency in remote learning, and the relative value of each of these outcomes; • Designing methods of efficacy and effectiveness research harnessing user logs from widely available education technology environments; • Development of standards for user logging and policies for data collection, storage, and ownership in education technology envi ronments; and
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SPECIAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR NCSER While the current moment motivates the need for further research on specific topics across IES, the committee encourages IES to give specific consideration to pressing challenges facing the field of special education. What makes the re-examination of NCSER's topics so urgent?
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IES, through NCSER, is ideally suited to support work that further extends the learning science work to individuals with disabilities and special education teachers. For example, outside of special education, scholarship in contentarea instruction (e.g., mathematics, science, history and civics)
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Ultimately, reimagining the project types alone (as we have recommended in Chapter 4 of this report) will not address the numerous ways that topics, although technically fundable, are unlikely to get funded in the current topic structure.
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RECOMMENDATION 5.2: Within each of its existing and future topic area competitions, IES should emphasize the need for research focused on equity. RECOMMENDATION 5.3: In order to encourage research in areas that are responsive to current needs and are relatively neglected in the current funding portfolio, NCER and NCSER should add the following topics: • Civil rights policy and practice • Teacher education and education workforce development • Education technology and learning analytics RECOMMENDATION 5.4: IES should offer new research competitions under NCSER around these topics: • Teaching practices associated with improved outcomes for students with disabilities • Classroom and school contexts and structures that support access and inclusion for improved outcomes for students with disabilities • Issues specific to low-incidence populations
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Teacher Education and Special Education, 43(1)
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. Studying Teacher Education: The Report of the AERA Panel on Research and Teacher Education.
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Paper prepared for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medi cine, Committee on the Future of Education Research at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education.
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. Informing estimates of program effects for studies of mathematics professional development using teacher content knowledge outcomes. Evaluation Review, 40(5)
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. Special education teacher education research: Current status and future directions.
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. A Compendium of Education Technology Research Funded by NCER and NCSER: 2002–2014.
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