The Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) provides essential support for the improvement of American education by building knowledge about teaching and learning and by helping to stimulate improvements in education policy and practice. OERI supports a wide range of research, development, and dissemination activities and the statistics and assessment programs of the National Center for Education Statistics. The budget request for OERI activities in 2002 is $382.1 million, an increase of $66.6 million from the fiscal year 2001 appropriation for comparable programs. Most of the proposed increase is for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

The statistics and assessment programs support systematic, regular data collections to provide the information needed to make decisions about education policy and measure the impact of State and local reforms that change what students study, how they are taught, and how their performance is measured. The 2002 request for statistics includes support for a broad portfolio of on-going activities, as well as an increase of $5 million to expand the sample for the National Assessments of Adult Literacy and to provide additional support the Decennial Census project. The $69 million increase for the assessment program will support annual State-level NAEP assessments in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8 that are an integral part of the President's No Child Left Behind initiative.

An increase of $2.5 million for research and dissemination would support the language minority initiative, which provides grants for research to identify critical factors influencing the development of English-language literacy competencies among children whose first language is not English. The increase will fund a competition for new awards.

	2000	2001	2002 Request
Research and dissemination	$103.6	$120.6	$123.1
Regional educational laboratories	65.0	65.0	65.0
Total	168.6	185.6	188.1

The request would support university-based centers that conduct long-term research and development on core issues and concerns, field-initiated studies in which the topics and methods of study are determined by the individual investigators, 10 regional educational laboratories, dissemination activities, and a variety of other research and related projects that address issues of national significance. Activities include:

Research Initiative-a collaborative effort between the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). This Initiative is building a knowledge base for improving educational practice by fostering innovative research on basic learning, teaching, and organizational mechanisms and developing sustainable and scalable interventions in education. The goal of the Initiative is to improve pre-K through grade 12 student learning and achievement in reading, mathematics, and science by supporting rigorous, interdisciplinary research on large-scale interventions of promising practices and technologies in complex and varied learning environments. The work is intended to benefit students who, early on, are deemed to be at risk of school failure and who fail to acquire the higher-level skills needed to compete in the technology-driven workplaces of the 21st century.

Improving Achievement in the Core Subject Areas. The Department is proposing to continue its support for the Interagency Education Research Initiative -- a collaborative effort between the Department of Education, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). This Initiative is building a knowledge base for improving educational practice by fostering innotative research on basic learning, teaching, and organizational mechansisms and developing sustainable and scalable interventions in education. The goal of the Initiative is to improve pre-K through grade 12 student learning and achievement in reading, mathematcis and science by supporting rigorous, interdisciplinary research on large-scale interventions of promising practices and technologies in complex and varied learning environments. The work is intended to benefit students who, early on, are deemed to be at risk of school failure and who fail to acquire the higher-level skills needed to compete in the technology-driven workplaces of the 21^st Improving Learning for Language-Minority Students. The request includes $10 million, including $3 million for new awards, to continue support for a major interagency research effort in conjunction with NICHD aimed at identifying critical factors that influence the development of English-language literacy (reading and writing) competencies among children whose first language is Spanish.

Comprehensive School Reform. OERI would continue to support the design, development, evaluation, and scaling-up of comprehensive school reform models for middle and high schools that incorporate the best research-based components and practices available. One goal is to understand the circumstances under which these models are most likely to contribute to sustained improvements in schools.

Regional Educational Laboratories. The regional laboratories promote knowledge-based school improvement to help all students meet high standards, with an emphasis on helping districts and schools serving high concentrations of low-income children. This mission is carried out through extensive programs of applied research and development designed to assist educators and policymakers in their efforts to implement effective school reforms. The laboratories test new approaches to teaching and learning; provide training and technical assistance to teachers, administrators, and policymakers; and disseminate research findings about what works with diverse student groups under a variety of conditions. In addition to providing services to meet regional needs, each laboratory conducts basic and applied research, dissemination, and technical assistance in a designated specialty area.

Dissemination Activities. These activities give educators across the Nation ready access to the best information and methods drawn from educational research and development. Funds support the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC), which contains an extensive body of education-related literature and materials, and the National Library of Education, which provides comprehensive reference services.

The request includes a $5 million, or 6 percent, increase to support the regular data collection, analysis, and reporting activities of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). NCES data are used by local, State, and Federal policymakers to gauge the effects of reforms, measure the return on investments in education, and make decisions about educational policy and planning. In addition, NCES databases and publications are widely used by educators, researchers, and others interested in education.

The request includes funds for a program of statistics that has evolved over the past 10 years in response to legislation, evaluation, and particular data needs and in consultation with education researchers, data providers, and data users. The statistics programs provide general statistics about trends in education, collect data to monitor reform and progress toward the National Education Goals, and inform the research agenda of OERI. NCES also is planning to meet the statistical needs of the future with new technologies, training, data development and analysis, and methodological studies that will support more efficient data collection and produce information that is more useful for parents, teachers, administrators, and policymakers.

The request includes an increase to help expand the sample of the National Assessments of Adult Literacy (NAAL) and to provide additional support for work on the Decennial Census project. NAAL is a nationally representative assessment of English language literacy skills of American adults that will help policymakers target resources to address literacy-related issues. Restoration of the sample size will help ensure accurate estimates are available for key demographic and analysis groups. The Decennial Census project provides 2000 Census data for the Nation's school districts. Additional funding in 2002 will help ensure timely, on-line availability of such data.

The budget includes a $69 million increase to support the implementation of the President's proposal to administer the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) annually in every State in reading and mathematics at grades 4 and 8. The expansion of NAEP is a key aspect of the accountability proposals in No Child Left Behind and provides a tool to help States gauge their progress toward improving student achievement. At the requested level, all costs of the NAEP expansions would be covered by Federal funds. Other funds would cover the on-going NAEP program, including national assessments each year, other State-level assessments, and periodic long-term trend assessments. The budget also includes funding for the operational, programmatic, and advisory functions of the National Assessment Governing Board.

The Administration is not requesting funding for the International Education Exchange program in 2002. The program's contribution to the Department of Education's mission to improve the excellence of education in the United States is minimal. Grants supports education exchange activities in civics and economics between the United States and eligible countries. The program benefited fewer than 300,000 U.S. students and 3,900 U.S. teachers in 2000. BA in millions)