House Passes Final Agreement on Castle Education Research Reform Bill
House-Senate Agreement Will Help Implement “No Child Left Behind,” Close Achievement Gap

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. House of Representatives has given final approval to bipartisan legislation, sponsored by Education Reform Subcommittee Chairman Mike Castle (R-DE), to help students learn reading, math, and other essential skills by improving the quality of education research. House and Senate negotiators this week reached an agreement on the Education Sciences Reform Act, widely viewed as an essential counterpart to the recently enacted No Child Left Behind law, which passed the House unanimously in April.

By modifying and streamlining education research methods, the House-Senate agreement eliminates existing methods that are not held to high standards in favor of new, more independent and innovative approaches based on coordinated, high quality education research.

“The House-Senate agreement addresses what I have come to know as serious shortcomings in the field of education research, including the funding and dissemination of questionable studies, programs, and practices, and an overly bureaucratic office with no real sense of mission,” Castle said. “More importantly, this legislation will give teachers and schools the scientifically based research and technical assistance they need to implement the No Child Left Behind law and improve student achievement. It is a solid, bipartisan agreement and I look forward to it being signed into law.”

“This legislation will help to ensure education research priorities are driven by the needs of parents, teachers, and school administrators - not political pressure,” said House Education & the Workforce Committee Chairman John Boehner (R-OH). “Chairman Castle has worked tirelessly to pass this legislation, and his work will make a significant and positive difference for the children of our nation.”

The bill passed by the House requires all federally funded research activities to meet high standards of quality by including a definition of scientifically based research standards consistent with definitions in the No Child Left Behind legislation. By replacing the current Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) with a new, more autonomous Academy of Education Sciences, the bill enhances efforts to coordinate and improve federal research - ensuring better results for our children. The bill also creates three separate centers under the academy - one for research, evaluation, and statistics, guaranteeing more autonomous research.

“I want to thank my friend from Delaware, Chairman Castle, for his leadership in completing work on this important legislation that is critical to every child’s future,” said Rep. John Boehner (R-OH), chairman of the Education & the Workforce Committee. “This measure is necessary to help educators and school administrators implement the No Child Left Behind reforms and to help close the achievement gap between our highest and lowest achieving students.”

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