History, Organization, and Current Projects

Introduction

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) is dedicated to the advancement of the highest quality education research and its use in policy formation and practice.  Founded in 1965, the Academy consists of up to two hundred U.S. members and up to twenty-five foreign associates who are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship or outstanding contributions to education. Since its establishment, the Academy has undertaken numerous commissions and study panels which typically include both NAEd members and other scholars with expertise in a particular area of inquiry. 

In addition to serving on committees and study panels that address pressing issues in education, Academy members are also deeply engaged in NAEd’s professional development programs focused on rigorous preparation of the next generation of scholars. Since 1986, NAEd has administered the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, funded by The Spencer Foundation, which supports early career scholars working in critical areas of educational research.  In 2007, NAEd launched the Adolescent Literacy Predoctoral Fellowship Program with generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York to support doctoral research aimed at improving literacy outcomes for middle and secondary school students. In keeping with its mission, NAEd funds proposals that promise to make significant scholarly contributions to the field of education as well as to advance the careers of the fellowship recipients.

Membership and Leadership

Today, the National Academy of Education consists of 150 elected regular members as well as 49 individuals representing the membership categories of members emeriti, foreign associates-voting, foreign associates-non-voting and foreign associates-emeriti. The election process requires letters of nomination and endorsement from current members, a preliminary review of each candidate's qualifications by the board of directors, an advisory review by the full membership, and election by the board of directors. The National Academy of Education is governed by a nine member board of directors.

History

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) was founded in 1965 on the initiative of John Gardner, then president of the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and James B. Conant, former president of Harvard University to "promote scholarly inquiry and discussion concerning the ends and means of education, in all its forms, in the United States and abroad."

Since its founding, the National Academy of Education has sponsored numerous commissions and study panels including both NAEd members and other scholars. One early example, Prejudice and Pride: The Brown Decision After 25 Years, was produced at the request of the Assistant Secretary of Education. It analyzed the Brown decision, the extent of its implementation, views of its present meaning and relevance, and policy options under which its spirit might flourish. Another early study, The Appropriate Federal Role in Education: Some Guiding Principles, was completed in the early 1970s with support from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). Thereafter, in 1972, the NAEd was asked by the Secretary of HEW to assist in designing the structure for what was then the nascent National Institute of Education. Although no formal reports were involved, between 1968 and 1972, NAEd also made regular recommendations to the Secretary of HEW concerning funding for basic research. In 1987, NAEd published The Nation's Report Card: Improving the Assessment of Student Achievement. This included a review of the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) by a study group appointed by then U.S. Secretary of Education, William J. Bennett, and chaired by Lamar Alexander and H. Thomas James. The report also provided a commentary on that review by an Academy panel led by Robert Glaser of the University of Pittsburgh. In 1995, NAEd published Improving Education Through Standards-Based Reform, which was written by Lorrie A. Shepard of the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Milbrey W. McLaughlin of Stanford University. Initially planned to provide advice to the National Education Standards and Improvement Council (NESIC) about critical issues in standards development, this report was instead directed to a more general audience once it became clear that NESIC would be abolished.

In addition to these examples of policy-relevant research, from time to time the NAEd has sponsored reviews of research and commentaries on the current state of education research. In 1969, for example, a group of Academy members collaborated to write Research for Tomorrow's Schools: Disciplined Inquiry for Education, edited by Lee J. Cronbach and Patrick Suppes and published by Macmillan. The volume provided a 300-page review of current research. In 1991, Michael W. Kirst of Stanford University and Diane Ravitch, then of Teachers College, Columbia University, chaired a committee that again reviewed the state of the field. Consisting entirely of NAEd members (who, in addition to Kirst and Ravitch, included Michael Cole, University of California at San Diego; James S. Coleman, the University of Chicago; Linda Darling-Hammond, then of Teachers College, Columbia University; Lauren B. Resnick, the University of Pittsburgh; and Marshall S. Smith, then of Stanford University), the Kirst-Ravitch committee produced a report published by NAEd and entitled Research and the Renewal of Education.

The National Academy of Education has sponsored several study groups. The Commission on the Improvement of Education Research, a self-generated study panel co-chaired by Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, then of New York University and Lee S. Shulman of Stanford University and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, completed its work in 1999. The commission (whose members, in addition to Lagemann and Shulman, were: Charles E. Bidwell, University of Chicago; Ann L. Brown, University of California, Berkeley; Jerome Bruner, New York University; and Allan Collins, Northwestern University) studied the ways in which education research is changing and should change and commissioned papers to capture the ferment at the time. Seventeen papers were written for the commission, some by NAEd members, many by non-NAEd members. They were edited and published by Jossey-Bass as Issues in Education Research: Problems and Possibilities (1999). The final report of the commission, Next Steps, was a report to NAEd concerning what it might do to strengthen the scholarship of education.

In 1998, at the request of the National Educational Research Policy and Priorities Board (NERPP), NAEd undertook a one-year study of research priorities related to the board's focus on high achievement for all students. Under the direction of James G. Greeno, Stanford University, and Ann L. Brown, University of California at Berkeley, the Academy convened three discrete panels. The first panel, chaired by Hugh Mehan of the University of California, San Diego, considered critical transitions and the curricula and assessment practices that support them. The second panel, chaired by Magdalene Lampert of the University of Michigan, studied professional development and teacher communities, including teachers' development of curriculum and assessment practices, and assessment of teaching quality. The third panel, chaired by Lauren B. Resnick of the University of Pittsburgh, considered how to strengthen the nation's capacity for research that will contribute to educational practice and public policy. Within the domain it considered, each panel tried to determine which research topics have already been explored in considerable depth, which need further examination, and which need not only further examination, but also the development of research capacities that do not currently exist. The final report, Recommendations on Research Priorities, was issued in March 1999.

In September 2000, the National Academy of Education was awarded a grant from the U. S. Department of Education’s Office of Innovation and Improvement to convene a Committee on Teacher Education (CTE). Co-chaired by Linda Darling-Hammond of Stanford University and John Bransford of the University of Washington, Seattle, the committee met regularly to develop a set of understandings about pedagogical knowledge that, in addition to content knowledge and in-service experience, are indispensable to good teaching. A reading subcommittee was also formed and chaired by Catherine Snow. The members of the CTE, a diverse group of researchers, teacher educators, and teachers, developed recommendations and collaborated with a network of seven universities to investigate how these recommendations might be implemented. The project was initially funded as a three-year initiative and NAEd received additional funding from the Ford Foundation to complete the work of the committee. Three major publications resulting from the work of the NAEd Committee on Teacher Education (CTE) were published in 2005:

In the fall of 2006, the NAEd Board authorized then-President Lorrie Shepard to constitute a committee to synthesize the social science research as it related to the “Meredith” Supreme Court cases on the use of race-conscious school assignment policies. The committee included as members: Robert Linn (Chair), Kathryn Borman, Jacqueline Eccles, Eric Hanushek, Edward Haertel, Janet Schofield, William Trent, and Kevin Welner. In June 2007, the NAEd released the committee’s now widely disseminated report, Race-Conscious Policies for Assigning Students to Schools: Social Science Research and the Supreme Court Cases.

Current Projects Sponsored by the National Academy of Education

In November 2001, the NAEd Board of Directors approved a new mission statement: “Advancement of the Highest Quality Education Research and Its Use in Policy Formation and Practice” which has served as a guiding principle in developing new projects and initiatives.

Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program:

For the past twenty years, the National Academy of Education has administered a postdoctoral fellowship program funded by the Spencer Foundation to promote scholarship in the United States and abroad on matters relevant to the improvement of education in all its forms. Between ten and twelve Academy members serve on the postdoctoral selection committee each year, and all Academy members are asked to participate in the process by reading selected semi-finalist applications or participating in fellows activities. Annemarie Palincsar, University of Michigan, serves as Chair of the fellowship selection committee. Fellows receive funding for one full-time or two half-time years of research. In addition to research time, fellows are asked to present their research at NAEd annual meetings and are invited to specially planned research retreats where they discuss their work with other fellows (current and former) and with NAEd members. To date, the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship Program has provided over 600 fellowships to scholars in the United States and other countries around the world.

Adolescent Literacy Predoctoral Fellowship Program:

Beginning in 2007, a new predoctoral fellowship program has been established to support doctoral research focused on adolescent literacy. The goal of this program, launched with generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, is to strengthen and stimulate adolescent literacy education by infusing the field with highly talented, well-trained, and motivated researchers and teacher educators. Catherine Snow, Harvard University, serves as Chair of the fellowship selection committee.

The Adolescent Literacy Predoctoral Fellowship Program will encourage more scholars in schools of education and related disciplines to conduct dissertation research focused on improving literacy outcomes for middle and secondary students. Fellows will each receive a stipend of $25,000, to be disbursed over a period of up to two years, to support them in finalizing their dissertation proposal, designing and conducting rigorous research, analyzing their data, and writing up their dissertation research results. Twenty fellows will be accepted for the two-year fellowships.

NAEd Education Policy White Papers Project:

NAEd is engaged in an initiative to connect policymakers in the Administration and Congress with the best available evidence on selected education policy issues. The project is designed to help policymakers better understand key education issues and to strengthen their ability to formulate effective policies by providing them with independent, research-based information. Six project working groups, consisting of the nation’s top education researchers, developed white papers that address six important education policy areas: equity and excellence in American education; reading and literacy; science and mathematics education; standards, assessments, and accountability; teacher quality; and time for learning. Each of the white papers reviews the available research evidence and presents possible policy options or recommendations.

A major public convocation was also held on November 18, 2008, in Washington, DC, in the auditorium of the National Academies to share selected findings of the project with the new Administration, Congress, education stakeholders, and the general public.

Systematic Assessment of Education Research Doctorate Programs:

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) and NAEd are working together to conduct a systematic assessment of education research doctorate programs using the methodology of the National Research Council (NRC) Assessment of Research Doctorate Programs. Currently, education research is not included as a field in the NRC study taxonomy. The study will provide critical data that can be used to establish benchmarks and quality criteria to improve education research doctorate programs nationally. In addition to collecting and reporting on program attributes such as student and faculty demographics, program characteristics, and the scholarly productivity and impact of faculty, this study will also assess the extent and nature of methodological preparation of education research doctoral students.

Collaborations with the National Academies / National Research Council:

Beginning in 2005, the National Academy of Education (NAEd) and the National Research Council (NRC) have entered into a more formal collaboration in order to engage their respective education and scientific disciplinary strengths to advance the highest quality education research. To facilitate the development of this collaboration, the NAEd moved its offices to the Keck Center of the National Academies in Washington, DC.

The recently released report, Getting Value Out of Value Added, documents discussions of a workshop jointly held by the National Research Council and the National Academy of Education in 2008 to help policy makers understand the current strengths and limitations of value-added approaches and whether to implement them in their jurisdictions. Sponsored with generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the workshop brought together experts in educational testing and accountability, value-added methodology from both the economics and statistical traditions, and state and local data systems to help identify areas of emerging consensus as well as areas of disagreement regarding appropriate uses of value-added methods. The workshop explored the advantages and disadvantages of value-added methods and responsible and defensible uses in education settings.

A second workshop report on the accurate measurement of high school drop out and completion rates has entered final review and will soon be released.