U. S. Dept. of Ed.: “What Works Clearinghouse”

The U.S. Department of Education has awarded a five-year, $18.5 million contract to a special joint venture to develop a national What Works Clearinghouse, which will summarize evidence on the effectiveness of different programs, products, and strategies intended to enhance academic achievement and other important educational outcomes.

The clearinghouse will help provide education decision-makers with the information they need to make choices guided by the best available scientific research. The use of research-proven strategies based on sound scientific evidence is one of the key principles of No Child Left Behind. “By providing educators with ready access to the best available scientific research evidence, the clearinghouse will be an important resource for enhancing the quality of local decision-making and improving program effectiveness,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. “And it will help transform education into an evidence-based field.”

The What Works Clearinghouse will provide the following easily accessible and searchable online databases:
-An educational interventions registry that identifies potentially replicable programs, products, and practices that are claimed to enhance important student outcomes, and synthesizes the scientific evidence related to their effectiveness.
-An evaluation studies registry, which is linked electronically to the educational interventions registry, and contains information about the studies constituting the evidence of the effectiveness of the program, products, and practices reported.
-An approaches and policies registry that contains evidence-based research reviews of broader educational approaches and policies.
-A test instruments registry that contains scientifically rigorous reviews of test instruments used for assessing educational effectiveness.
-An evaluator registry that identifies evaluators and evaluation entities that have indicated their willingness and ability to conduct quality evaluations of education interventions.#