Strengthening Education Through Research Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. THOMPSON of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from Indiana for his leadership on this bill. I also want to thank my colleague from New York, Representative McCarthy, for her leadership on this bill.

One of the most important assets that we have in education is our teachers, but our teachers need proven tools. That is why we are here today. This bill is about making sure that we are providing best practices, data-based tools, in terms of teaching methods.

The Strengthening Education Through Research Act seeks to bolster one of our most fundamental education priorities--improving outcomes and raising student achievement.

In 2002, Congress passed the Education Sciences Reform Act, establishing the Institute of Education Sciences, which is responsible for gathering data on educational best practices in the Nation's schools. The intent of the law was to enable States and school districts to identify and improve upon successful education practices.

Although IES has meaningfully improved the quality of education research over the last decade, it also faces shortcomings, one being the significant delay in disseminating key data and findings to local education stakeholders, especially in more rural areas of the country.

Despite the law's successes, improvements can and must be made, and that is the business we are about here this evening. The Strengthening Education Through Research Act reforms our Federal research structure so that States, local school districts, parents, and policymakers have greater access to data--data that is better organized, more reliable, and more useful for our local schools and communities.

As a member of the House Education Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education, I am proud to be a cosponsor of this bipartisan reauthorization.

I urge my colleagues to support passage of this bill, so that we can fulfill the Federal Government's commitment to provide States and localities with the latest and best available evidence-based research in a timely fashion.

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