IES to Evaluate Programs Launched Under Stimulus

From the Education Week article "IES to Evaluate Programs Launched Under Stimulus," November 30, 2009:

"Details are starting to emerge about a study planned by the U.S. Department of Education to determine what states are doing with their education money under the economic-stimulus law and whether the efforts being funded improve schooling.

'Most of the money is really for stabilization, but $10 billion is going to be for competitive grants,' John Q. Easton, the director of the department's Institute of Education Sciences, told his advisory board at its Nov. 9 meeting. 'I certainly don't want to be here in three years and have somebody say, 'What did we get for that $10 billion?' '

'We've got to be learning from this,' he added of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. 'It's too huge an opportunity to lose.'

The $787 billion package includes some $100 billion to help bolster education. The first reports show that the biggest portion of such aid spent so far has gone to save or create jobs. ..."

"...The institute has recruited a group of scholars for advice on an evaluation strategy. They include: Dale Ballou, an associate professor of public policy and education at Vanderbilt University; Kevin Carey, the policy director of Education Sector, a Washington think tank; Tom Cook, a professor of sociology, psychology, education, and social policy at Northwestern University; and Ronald F. Ferguson, a senior lecturer in education and public policy and senior research associate at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy at Harvard University. ..."