A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH
POLICY AND PRIORITIES BOARD

Minutes of Meeting

January 14, 1999

Location
Room 100
80 F Street NW
Washington, DC 20208-7564

Members Present
Kenji Hakuta, Chair
Patricia A. Baltz
James E. Bottoms
John Bruer
Ann Clark
Edmund Gordon
Robert Marley
Alba Ortiz
Claire Pelton

Members Absent
Jomills H. Braddock II
Sharon Lynn Kagan
Glenda T. Lappan
Joyce Muhlestein

Ex Officio Members Present
C. Kent McGuire, OERI
Norman Fortenberry, Delegate, NSF
Douglas Herbert, Delegate, National Endowment for the Arts

Designated Federal Official
Thelma Leenhouts

Board Staff Present
Eve Bither
Mary Grace Lucier

OERI Staff Present
Ron Anson
Carol Chelemer
Elizabeth Demarest
Cynthia Dorfman
Norma Duncan
Lance Federer
Beth Fine
Carol Sue Fromboluti
Sandra Garcia
Kathy FitzGerald
Jim Fox
Ed Fuentes
Wilma Green
Jim Griffith
Peirce Hammond
Sharon Horn
Barbara Hume
Jacqueline Jenkins
Clara Lawson-Holmes
Paulette Lee
Nancy Loy
Carol Lyons
Jerry Malitz
Dolores Malone
Ron Pedone
Judith Segal
Enid Simmons
Nevzer Stacy
Karen Suagee
Duc Le Tho

Members of the Department Present
Cindy Stewart, OGC
Rick Hernandez, OVAE
Matthew Boulay, Budget
Sandra Furey, PES

Members of the Public Present
Diane August
Carol Boussy, Decision Information Resources
Ann Brown, National Academy of Education
Emerson Elliott
Penny Engel
Alyson Falwell, American Association of State Colleges and Universities
Rich Hershman, NEKIA
Gerald Sroufe, AERA
E. Lea Schelke, Nominee to NERPPB

Chairman Kenji Hakuta called the meeting to order at 9:13 a.m. and introduced a recent nominee to the Board, E. Lea Schelke, from Trenton, MI, and a newly appointed delegate from the National Science Foundation, Norman Fortenberry.

Report of the Assistant Secretary

Dr. McGuire discussed the outlines of the agency budget for FY 2000 with respect to the core functions and statistics; the prospect is for an additional $45 million for research. Planning is underway for the Education Research Initiative, a collaborative which involves OERI, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD); funding for FY 1999 appears to be in the range of $22 million, which represents new dollars for the field. OERI?s contribution will be between $5 and $8 million. The focus will be on problems of practice in reading, math, and emerging technology, and the effort could grow substantially in the next. He alluded to efforts to get work underway on the Comprehensive School Reform initiative and welcomed participation by the Board in planning and discussions.

With regard to the OERI authorization, the Assistant Secretary indicated his preference for focusing on the work that needs to be done over the next 4-7 years in research, development, dissemination, and statistics, the opportunities to extend knowledge and influence policy and practice, and to pursue the logical extensions of current investments. The work should dictate how the agency is organized. The Board?s commissioned papers, studies, and syntheses will help to clarify the process and the issues; the Secretary and the Deputy Secretary will also have input, as will the field. The hope is that the Department will have a proposal by late February.

Report on Third Year Evaluation of the Regional Educational Laboratories

Carol Boussy of Decision Information Resources (DIR) explained the components of the evaluation framework and criteria and presented a summary of the work to date on the independent interim evaluation of the ten regional educational laboratories. The study is under the direction of the U.S. Department of Education Planning and Evaluation Service, and is being conducted in accordance with the Standards for Conduct and Evaluation of Activities Carried Out by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (Phase III). A nine-member panel serves as a technical work group. The evaluation will be completed by August.

Report on the NCES Interactive Web Site

Jerry Malitz, webmaster of the National Center for Education Statistics, gave a report and demonstration of the NCES web site, which presently encompasses 35,000 pages.

Action Items

1. The minutes of the previous Board meeting, September 17 and 18, 1998, were approved as read.
2. The action of the Executive Committee authorizing the commitment of $75,000 per year for three years to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development for a joint initiative to evaluate the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) on learning was approved.
3. In response to the December 16 memorandum of the Peer Review and Standards (PR&S) Committee reflecting its recommendations based on the report, "Strengthening Standards: Recommendations for OERI Peer Review," the following motions were passed by unanimous vote:
• To adopt the recommendations of the PR&S Committee as amended;
• To recommend that OERI consider implementing those recommendations representing administrative changes with priority on considering the establishment and funding of standing panels for the Research Institutes;
• To direct that the PR&S Committee include recommendations for necessary statutory changes in its draft report on the reauthorization of OERI;
• To ask the Assistant Secretary for OERI for an update on the implementation of these recommendations at the June 1999 meeting of the Board;
• That the Executive Director work with the contractor/author of the Peer Review Study commissioned by the Board to complete a final report to be distributed to the Board for comment and reviewed by the Executive Committee in consultation with the Assistant Secretary.

Discussion Item

The Assistant Secretary led a discussion of the draft announcement for the FY 1999 Request for Proposals for the Field Initiated Studies.

The meeting was adjourned at 4:26 p.m.

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January 15