IES under Whitehurst.(correspondence)(Letter to the editor)

When Andrew Rudalevige interviewed me for his recent article ("Juggling Act,"features, Winter 2009), the National Board for Education Sciences, an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) advisory board that I chaired, had not yet completed its con-gressionally mandated report on the performance of IES. It is now final and available at the institute's web site.

Rudalevige and the board agree that IES has made exceptional progress in improving the rigor and relevance of education research. We also agree that much of the progress is due to the well-crafted authorizing legislation, the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA), which established the institute and is currently awaiting reauthorization. Because ESRA led to such strong results, the board recommended its reauthorization with few changes. My view is that there is no reason to rush reauthorization, because the act is working well.

The institute's exemplary performance is due in large part to its first and only director, Russ Whitehurst, who completed his term in November 2008. Russ is known for his interest in "what works" with a concomitant emphasis on field experiments, and his greatest legacy maybe his attention to infrastructure. He implemented ...