coe-staff: FW: Notes from Mark Schneider's meeting with Friends of IES

Fri Jun 8 10:18:38 PDT 2018

Greetings COE Faculty and Staff:

I am forwarding the email below from Betsy Boyd, Associate VP for Federal Affairs at the UO and a great friend and supporter of the COE. I think her notes are a must read as they offer keen insights into future IES priorities and commitments as represented by the new IES Director, Mark Schneider.

Mark and I both served as Commissioner at IES at the same time. I think IES is in good hands, for now. I encourage faculty who frequent DC to take Mark up on his invitation to “come talk to me.” He’s a great guy, affably edgy, fun, and warm and welcoming. If you do, please greet him for me. All the best, Ed

From: Betsy Boyd <eaboyd at uoregon.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 7, 2018 at 8:44 AM
To: "randyk at uoregon.edu" <randyk at uoregon.edu>, "Dr. Kame'enui" <ekamee at uoregon.edu>, Leslie Leve <leve at uoregon.edu>, David Conover <dconover at uoregon.edu>
Cc: Cassandra Moseley <cmoseley at uoregon.edu>, Vidusha Devasthali <vidusha at uoregon.edu>, Karen Hyatt <khyatt at uoregon.edu>, Libby Batlan <batlan at uoregon.edu>
Subject: Notes from Mark Schneider's meeting with Friends of IES

Colleagues -

I participated (via phone) in the Friends of IES meeting. Mark Schneider (at last - an IES director in perpetuity) met with the group, spoke for about 20 minutes and then took questions. The entire conversation lasted about an hour. The audience was primarily gov't relations staff from universities, professional associations, and some advocacy groups. There were probably 30 or so folks in the room and another five or so of us on the phone.

Below are notes in case they're useful to you or others - (If you share with others at UO - and I hope you do if you think these notes are useful, please ask folks to use professional discretion in sharing with folks outside of our organization since I'm characterizing the frank comments of an agency head. Please know that any errors in emphasis are mine - it was an informal conversation among "friends" - I could easily have gotten emphasis or even details wrong). I've copied VPR and gov't relations colleagues whose work intersects with IES:

The key take-aways are:

* He wants IES to do work in post-secondary and CTE - we should expect to see RFPs in that direction. He invited people to come share ideas about birth to three/brain work and/or post secondary ;

* Other than NCSER, IES doesn't think about birth to three/brain research and he wants to figure out how to better comport with those funders who do (ACS, NIH, and even NSF);

* He is adamant about clear language, actionable information, cognizance of the cost of interventions, and connections to jobs/outcomes;

* He's focused on connecting skills to jobs - he plans an SBIR to develop information.

Mark Schneider began his remarks by asking the group some rapid questions (which were hard to hear) about what they knew about recent (?) work of his and whether they had read something he'd written - there was nervous laughter, reminders that the bulk of the audience was gov't relations staff and it'd be the faculty who'd know the ins and outs of whatever he had declaimed, until someone jumped in and talked about his emphasis on metrics, evidence-based research, etc.

After that initial back and forth, he got into his priorities/interests for his first year. (At the end of the Q&A period, he indicated that he's written a two page summary of his ideas that he plans to disseminate once he has time.)

* Cost of interventions - he's sensitive to the cost of interventions and thinks there needs to be more awareness and emphasis on whether an intervention costs $5 or $500. He told the group to "watch for language in everything" that will get at the idea of giving practitioners the information they need to make decisions based on costs and metrics. He wants to see more emphasis on outreach to teachers, greater use of social media, and he wants to make everything a lot easier to understand including the cost of interventions so better decisions can be made;

* Clear language - he expects reports, starting with IES' own reports, to be simple, direct and powerful in their use of language. He wants reports to immediately grab the reader's interest. He expects more one-pagers, readable executive summaries. Those are expectations he has of researchers funded by IES, as well - he hates seeing material that should live on the web being included in a report or notes like "this page left intentionally blank" if you're printing the report at home - reports need to be clear, brief and readable/actionable;

* Metrics - Metrics matter a lot and he expects metrics to be used in ways that are understandable and communicated as "substantially important in the way that human beings care".

* What works clearinghouse - it sounds like he's a fan of the clearinghouse but has ideas about how to make it better.

* IES emphasis needs to include birth to three and post-secondary/CTE - he said that IES was first a K-12 organization and then later became preK-12, but the absence of post-secondary outcomes doesn't square with IES' mission. He's talked to his staff about putting grants on a rotation to free up space for new areas like post-secondary outcomes work. He spoke hypothetically of making $10 mil available for post-secondary ideas. He's going to do some convening to talk about an expansion of NCER's work to include post-secondary, CTE and jobs outcomes. He's very interested in the connection between skills and wages. He doesn't believe IES' preK-12 emphasis comports with IES' authorizing legislation. He thinks IES has a literal responsibility to help support the brain science/birth to three work at ACS-NIH, but he's not sure how to go about doing that. He's adamant about the obligation to connect skills to jobs.

* Focus on state partnerships - He sees states as having money and regulatory authority - he wants new and closer partnerships with states. The next time IES does pre-doctoral training awards he's going to insist on apprenticeships where people work in state agencies or local education agencies.

He wrapped up his comments saying that while those are his plans for his first year, he's going to spend his second year fixing everything he got wrong in his first year.

Q&As -

The first question was from someone from a learning disabilities coalition who asked about his early childhood emphasis, noting that birth to three work has a natural home with IDEA. He then said he neglected to mention NCSER, that Joan McLaughlin (sp?) is "rock solid" and a "pure delight" but that NCSER is the only place that is perfectly aligned with birth to three work and that it isn't the smallest center. He wants to "challenge" NCER. The quesitoner thanked him, noting how important NCSER is and stating that  she "thought it should be said".

The next question had to do with reports and making them more accessible. How is he going to help researchers achieve this goal? He said it starts with his staff. He's also going to have new forms for RPAs (????) and he's going to think about the best way to accelerate the accumulation of knowledge. After 15 years with the goal structure approach, he's not convinced that there is a lot of evidence that the goal structure has worked. He's interested in new models - research network partnerships and/or knowledge centers. He spoke about the UT knowledge center (?), as an example, and said that it should have been housed at the higher ed coordinating board, not the UT system, because doing so would have brought in more partners like the community colleges. I think he said something kind of dismissive about something going on in Colorado but I might have got that wrong.

He also spoke briefly about data sets and the two bills that affect data sets including the Wyden-Rubio bill on post-secondary outcomes.

Someone asked about STEM and IES - he said he's felt no pressure to emphasize STEM

He made comments about workforce and budget - he's concerned that changes to telecommuting policies and other federal workforce decisions will lead to departures with little ability to backfill - he's sounded philosophical about his scope of influence.

He was asked about the perception that the US Dept of Ed doesn't support IES. He said that being in a different building from HQ is hard, but that he wouldn't trade the independence that the IES legislation gives them for a different relationship with the department. He was asked about the board - he noted that there are eight current vacancies with four more to come in November. He's aware that the Administration has reached out to some of his nominees, but doesn't know timeline.

As the conversation wrapped up, he said he planned to release a two page description of the changes he covered in the conversation, but hasn't had time to finish polishing it. He also said that he's planning to do an SBIR award connected to labor market information. He looked at doing a prize (which he has the authority to do, but found that prizes cost more than SBIR awards). He wants to better understand the skills and labor market demands and how to translate that into training programs that lead to high paying jobs.

In summary, he invited people to come talk to him. He said "sure you can come talk to me about K12 but I'm really interested in birth to three and post-secondary ideas".

I hope these notes are useful. -Betsy

Betsy Boyd, Associate VP, Federal Affairs

University of Oregon

________________________________
From: (Friends of IES) <FRIENDS_OF_IES-ANNOUNCE at LISTSERV.AERA.NET> on behalf of Christy Talbot <CTalbot at AERA.NET>
Sent: Wednesday, June 6, 2018 7:53 AM
To: FRIENDS_OF_IES-ANNOUNCE at LISTSERV.AERA.NET
Subject: Friends of IES: Agenda for June 7 Meeting @ 9:30 am

Dear Friends,

Attached please find the agenda for tomorrow’s Friends of IES meeting at 9:30 at AERA (1430 K Street NW, Suite 1200). Mark Schneider, director of IES, will be our guest. As Juliane noted in her previous announcement, please make an effort to attend in person.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Warm regards,
-Christy

Christy Talbot
Senior Program Associate, Government Relations
American Educational Research Association
1430 K St. NW, Suite 1200
Washington, DC 20005
202-238-3221 | ctalbot at aera.net<mailto:ctalbot at aera.net>
[acebook1]<http://www.facebook.com/aeraedresearch> [witter1] <http://www.twitter.com/aera_edresearch>  [cid:image003.jpg at 01D3FF12.0DEB1240]

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