Background:

The Interagency Education Research Initiative (IERI) began in response to a 1997 report, Report to the President on the Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education, in which President Clinton' s Panel on Educational Technology strongly urged that a significant federal research investment be undertaken to improve our understanding of how children learn, and to support the development of best practice that supports optimal learning, particularly through the use of computer and information technologies.

Status:

The IERI draws upon the combined expertise of the National Science Foundation, the Department of Education, and the National Institute of Health and Human Development.  With $30 million in FY 99 funds, the IERI will be soliciting proposals from interdisciplinary teams of researchers and practitioners in the Spring of 1999, and will make first-year awards by the Fall.  These awards will support large-scale research in three key areas: school readiness for learning reading and mathematics; K-3 learning in reading and mathematics; and education of PreK-12 teachers in mathematics, reading, and science.  The resulting knowledge base will be used to support the development, testing, and implementation of scalable and sustainable interventions to improve teaching and learning, particularly through the use of technology.