June 2015

The National Board of Education Sciences (NBES), which oversees the Institute of Education Sciences, met on June 8. The board passed a motion to draft a letter to congressional appropriators encouraging full funding for IES. In addition, NBES formed a working group to advise the board on possible actions regarding the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Chairman David Chard also introduced the new NBES Executive Director, Kenann McKenzie-Thompson. The meeting started with updates from the four center commissioners. Of particular interest was the update from Thomas Brock, commissioner of the National Center for Education Research (NCER). As opposed to previous years, this year NCER is able to fund all applications that were rated either excellent or outstanding. The National Assessment Governing Board also has a new executive director, Dr. William Bushaw.

Tom Kane, Harvard University, and AERA member Dr. James Kemple, New York University, presented on the topic of “Improving Education: The Research Road Ahead.” The discussion was based on the understanding that the research decisions that the Institute of Education Sciences makes now will determine the quality of education in the next 20 or 30 years. Much of the discussion centered on how to better engage state and local policy makers and how to most effectively incorporate local relevance and include policy makers in the research  process.