“Transformational R&D is catalyzed when foundational, high-quality research meets novel problems, emergent technologies, and diverse thinkers.” – Institute of Education Sciences
On Oct. 1, the Alliance for Learning Innovation hosted a Congressional staff briefing on Capitol Hill about the importance of transformative education R&D. It opened with panelists Dr. Matt Soldner, the Acting Director of IES, and Dr. Liz Albro, the Commissioner for the National Center for Education Research who spoke about IES’ Accelerate, Transform, and Scale (ATS) initiative and how it fills a critical gap in the education R&D ecosystem. They were followed by awardees of the ATS initiative’s 2024 Transformative Research in Education Sciences grant program, Dr. Neil Heffernan and Cristina Heffernan, who shared how ATS is giving the R&D community more flexibility to innovate.
Here are my top three takeaways from the ATS briefing:
1. ATS facilitates cutting-edge R&D to improve student outcomes. The ATS initiative supports quick turn-around, high-reward, and scalable education R&D. It focuses on the development side of “research and development” and drives interdisciplinary approaches to solving education’s most complex challenges. The ATS initiative invests in projects that need to be tested and iterated upon, and would have a transformative impact on students’ learning if they are successful.
2. ATS takes a nimble funding approach. ATS funds coordinated, directed projects that provide short-term seed funding before making long-term investments. This gives IES the ability to identify which projects are working before investing further. The "From Seedlings to Scale" program, for example, takes a three-phased approach to supporting innovative ideas from seedlings to scalable solutions.
3. ATS broadens IES’ applicant pool. ATS has reworked traditional applicant expectations to foster a more diverse applicant pool by increasing the program’s approachability. In some ATS programs, IES has opted for short, pitch deck-style applications rather than traditional, lengthy IES applications. Early evidence suggests this has attracted proposals from a wider swath of the R&D ecosystem and resulted in broader participation among Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Serving Institutions. Some of the ATS Requests for Applications require project teams to include partners from the research, technology, and practitioner fields, forming interdisciplinary teams and promoting a more inclusive R&D process.
ALI is eager to continue following the progress of the ATS initiative and the exciting projects it’s funding. To learn more about ATS, check out the deck IES presented at the briefing.