Washington, D.C., May 30, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Institute of Education Sciences (IES), in the U.S. Department of Education, has awarded the American Institutes for Research (AIR) the What Works Clearinghouse’s Statistics, Website, and Training (SWAT) contract. The five-year, $17.6 million contract begins this month.
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is a leading Federal source of evidence-based information about education programs, policies, and interventions that show promise for improving student outcomes. Through this contract, AIR will assist IES in methodological discussions, training, and dissemination, and will help facilitate deliberations about the WWC Standards and Procedures across all WWC contracts. The other contracts focus mainly on K-12 and higher education topics. This work will include updating, maintaining, and improving the WWC website, which receives more than 3 million views per year.
“Since 2002, the WWC has been committed to providing independent information to educators, policymakers, and the public about what works in education, based on rigorous, well-designed research,” said David Myers, Chief Executive Officer and President of AIR. “Over the next five years, we will build on this work and make the WWC an even more invaluable tool for improving education outcomes.”
The WWC offers a number of resources for researchers, practitioners and policymakers, including:
- Intervention Reports, which summarize the effectiveness research on existing programs, practices, policies, and interventions to determine the effects on student outcomes. These reports can be accessed through the WWC’s Find What Works tool, which allows users to filter results by subject, student group, and other topics.
- Practice Guides, which provide recommendations for educators to address challenges in their classrooms and schools around specific topics, including mathematics, reading, English language learners, special education, dropout prevention and more. These guides are based on reviews of research, the experiences of practitioners, and the opinions of a panel of nationally recognized experts.
- Reviews of Individual Studies, in which the design and execution of completed research is reviewed by experts to determine whether these studies meet the WWC’s rigorous design standards.
- Resources for Researchers, such as methodological guidelines and training on rigorous research designs, which help to advance the field of education research.
AIR Institute Fellow Larry Hedges and Senior Vice President Jack Buckley will serve as co-principal investigators with Jeffrey Valentine, a professor at the University of Louisville College of Education and Human Development. Joshua R. Polanin, principal researcher, will serve as Project Director.
About AIR
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of education, health, and the workforce. For more information, visit www.air.org.
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