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–FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE–

STATEMENT OF CINTHIA HAAN

Increasing Federal Spending on Education Research

Cinthia Haan, chairman of The Haan Foundation for Children and president, the Power4Kids Reading Initiative, advises Congress on the urgent need to increase federal spending on education research to $185 million in Fiscal Year 2005.

The U.S. Department of Education's newly formed Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is an agency capable of carrying out a coordinated, focused national agenda of high quality research, statistics and evaluation that is relevant to the educational challenges of the nation.

However, sufficient and sustained congressional funding is critical to IES's success and its ability to meet the demands of education created by the No Child Left Behind Act. Sufficient and sustained resources must support IES's work.

"The long-term goal of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is to become the leader in education growth just as the establishment of the National Institute of Health (NIH) became the leader in the improvement of health. In the long run, IES will be judged on one criterion: Have the efforts led to the creation of knowledge, methods and materials that enable America's educators to improve the outcomes of schooling for all children, especially academic achievement outcomes. To accomplish this goal, IES will have to support a wide range of research, from basic to applied. It also will have to build the infrastructure for research, development and dissemination of effective programs, with a particular focus on building the talent pool for doing high-quality research in education, just as the NIH has done in medical sciences", says Cinthia Haan, chair of the Haan Foundation for Children.

The IES has sufficient flexibility to adjust to new opportunities and problems when they arise. This is a unique and unparalleled agency that, under the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, began a process that will make American education an evidence-based field. Dr. Russ Whitehurst, the inaugural director of the IES, says, "If we succeed in this task, historians will look back at our inception as building the foundation for a new era in learning and teaching -- an era that propelled the United States into another century of preeminence."

"We know that research can make a difference in teaching and learning by providing high quality technical assistance and professional development, reliable data and wide dissemination of research and best practices", said Senator Edward Kennedy, "We want to be able to look to this Institute when we have education questions in the same way that we look to the NIH when we have medical questions."

Senator Judd Gregg states, "Though significant federal involvement in education research dates back to the 1950's, we are still without a strong body of high quality education research to guide education policymaking. Yet the need for sound, rigorous education research that is free of political bias and useful to educators has never been more important." Senator Jack Reed adds, "As states begin to implement the No Child Left Behind Act, the need for a responsive, relevant, high quality and rigorous education knowledge enterprise is greater than ever."

"There is no better time in our history to support rigorous science than now," says Mrs. Haan, "Our educators are hungry for facts on what practices and programs work best in educating students in math, reading, writing and science; yet, there are no clear answers. If America wants to remain the strongest country on Earth, we need to educate our populace to carry us forward. With the NAEP reports still exposing the facts – 38 percent of our nations 4 th- grade students can't read grade level books – it is not too great a leap to rationalize that the future of our great nation could be in jeopardy."

Haan concludes: "We ask the Senate to support the President's Fiscal Year 2005 budget request of $185 million for research conducted by the Institute of Education Sciences."

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This document is supported by the Power4Kids Partner Alliance.

Note: Quotes from Senators are from the House report on the Education Sciences Act of 2002>