Letter to Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray, and Ranking Member Scott of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Conference - Evidence-Based Innovation

Letter

As you negotiate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) conference report, we respectfully request that the final agreement include a strong commitment to evidence-based innovation in education. Too often, we fund unproven programs with little to show in the way of results. More of our federal dollars should work to encourage innovative programs and practices that can demonstrate significant education outcomes. Our Education and Innovation Research Program establishes a dedicated funding stream to support the development and expansion of evidence-based programs and practices designed and implemented by educators and local communities.

The Education Innovation and Research Program supports the development of innovative programs and practices through a three-tiered grant process. An early-phase grant allows applicants to develop evidence-based interventions that show promise; a mid-phase grant funds and evaluates the implementation of an early-phase grant and other practices that demonstrate effectiveness; and a final-phase grant supports replication and evaluation of programs and practices designed and supported by evidence to produce sizable effects. By providing funds based on results, grant amounts are determined by increasingly stringent evidence and evaluation requirements.

This program funds solutions that grantees design and implement themselves. It also encourages applicants to be entrepreneurial and develop projects to meet specific community needs. This approach is consistent with the objective of the Every Child Achieves Act (S. 1177) and the Student Success Act (H.R 5) to empower those closest to our children. We believe that providing communities with greater resources to develop their own evidence-based solutions will lead to better results for schools and for students.

To that end, this grant program is modeled on the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, under which 11 federal agencies set aside a small percentage of their budgets to award grants to small companies engaged in the development and evaluation of new technologies. Both the Government Accountability Office and the National Academy of Sciences have provided consistently positive assessments of the program's success. By applying this approach to education, we can provide a critically needed supply of new, entrepreneurial ideas to help solve the most significant problems in education. In doing so, we will get the most bang for our buck, while allowing local leaders to improve on the status quo that is not performing for many of our students. As part of our united commitment to empower state and local leaders, make sound investments, and increase definite outcomes, we urge you to include this commitment to evidence-based funding in a final conference package.

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