The Friends of the Institute of Education Sciences support the critical research, data, statistics and evaluation programs at IES. Our mission is to advance the objectives of IES, including: expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education from early childhood through higher education and the workforce; providing rigorous and relevant evidence on which to ground education practice and policy; sharing this information broadly; and promoting knowledge utilization in policy and practice. To that end, the Friends encourage federal investment to conduct the highest quality education research, data collection, evaluations and dissemination at IES.