WASHINGTON – Greater investments must be made now to federally supported education knowledge utilization programs in order to improve student achievement and help school districts and states meet the No Child Left Behind Act requirements for use of research-based instructional programs, NEKIA Board Chair Wes Hoover said Tuesday in testimony to Congress.


"Given that more than 25,000 U.S. public schools are not making adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, steps must be taken now to ensure that research-based education solutions are used in the classroom," Hoover said. "If states, districts and schools are to be able to make evidence a critical part of school reform, as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act, they need robust structures in place to help them base instruction on that evidence."

Hoover, the president of the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) in Austin, TX, testified before the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations.

He said greater investments are needed to respond to a "capacity crisis" driven by both greater demand and under funded supply. "Our nation's education research, development and dissemination system has historically been under funded and it simply does not have the resources to meet the current demand," he said. "The Department of Education spends less than one percent of its budget on research, development, and statistics."

Hoover testified that the federally supported education knowledge utilization programs – specifically the Regional Educational Labs, the Research and Development Centers, the Regional Technology in Education Consortia, the Eisenhower Regional Math and Science Education Consortia, the Comprehensive Assistance Centers, and the national clearinghouses – are uniquely positioned to make the critical connection with education providers to meet the tremendous needs for evidence-based practices to implement No Child Left Behind and the Education Sciences Reform Act.

"To address this capacity crisis, we hope Congress will double its investments in education knowledge utilization," he said. "Not only would increased investments help meet demand, they would also address a number of high priorities."

These priorities include:

• Improving teacher quality by providing research based information on best practices to teacher training institutions as well as information and technical assistance to schools districts implementing professional development programs.
• Helping special populations of students meet state adequate yearly progress goals. These special populations include English language learners, special needs children, and students in rural areas.
• Working with educators to interpret and manage a variety of data about student performance and classroom instruction.
• Scaling up school improvement efforts at the local level so that reform efforts in single schools can expand to district wide initiatives.
  

The President's budget for fiscal year 2005 proposes to cut or eliminate funding for many of federal education knowledge utilization. The cuts and eliminations total nearly $100 million.

"The Administration proposed the same sorts of reductions last year," Hoover said. "Fortunately, Congress acted in a bipartisan way to fund these programs. Now is the time for Congress to enhance and expand – not cut or dismantle – the federal system of education research, development, dissemination, and technical assistance."