August 2022

On July 28, Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) introduced the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act. The legislation would amend the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) to authorize a new center within the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the National Center for Advanced Development in Education (NCADE), and to include language that would boost authorization for funding the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) program.

The NEED Act would provide $500 million as an authorization for NCADE for FY 2023–2027 and $500 million as an authorization for SLDS in FY 2023. The House FY 2023 bill includes $75 million for NCADE. The SLDS account would receive $35.5 million in the House bill and $50 million in the Senate bill, both increases over the FY 2022 amount of $33.5 million.

As part of IES, NCADE would be organized like the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, focusing on the development of breakthrough technologies to inform learning and instruction, transformative solutions to address gaps in equity and achievement, and the development of assessments, among other items. NCADE activities would be informed by an advisory panel and commissioner.

The language in the NEED Act related to SLDS expresses the intent to expand the current SLDS program to incorporate additional data indicators, provide training for state and local officials to use data for improving practice, and promote the research use of data under privacy protections.

A Senate companion bill has not yet been introduced.