Enhancing English Learners' Success in Secondary Schools

1. The Education Research & Development Centers Competition: Improving Opportunities and Achievement for English Learners in Secondary School Settings Christina Chhin, Ph.D. National Center for Education Research

2. Presentation Outline • Introduction • Overview of IES and the R&D centers • Improving Opportunities and Achievement for English Learners in Secondary School Settings (Secondary School EL) R&D Center • Requirements and Recommendations • Next steps for applicants

3. Introduction Overview of IES and the R&D centers

4. Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education ED's mission is to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access. RESEARCH

5. Organizational Structure of IES

6. NCER’s Purpose NCER supports field-initiated, innovative solutions to improve education research and inform policy and practice. This includes • Rigorous, relevant research • Dissemination to stakeholders (policymakers, practitioners, researchers, the public) • Training to develop researchers prepared to do the above

7. Purpose of the R&D Centers Contribute to solving U.S. education problems, improve the education system, and increase student achievement through • Basic/Exploratory research • Development • Evaluation • National leadership • Dissemination • Supplemental studies (research, meetings, etc.)

8. Improving Opportunities and Achievement for English Learners in Secondary School Settings (Secondary School EL) R&D Center Requirements and Recommendations The Secondary School ELs Center will conduct studies to identify systemic and instructional influences, including policies, rules, and processes that affect ELs’ access to the general curriculum and its relation to education outcomes.

9. Focused Program of Research • Identify and describe the policies and system-level practices that are associated with secondary ELs’ access to the general curriculum and their relation to education outcomes. • Identify (with some development, if necessary) at least one approach to improving secondary school ELs’ access to and ability to learn from instruction in general education courses where English is the language of instruction.

10. Requirements and Recommendations When preparing your application, attend to both the requirements and the recommendations. • Requirements (the primary focus of today’s webinar) • The minimum required elements for an application to be sent forward to peer reviewers for funding consideration • Recommendations(what the reviewers will focus on when scoring applications) • The suggestions and guidance that applicants should keep in mind when preparing their application narratives • Where appropriate, recommendations refer to the Standards for Excellence in Education Research (SEER) principles.

11. General Requirements • Sample • Your research must focus on students in grades 6 to 12 who are currently identified as English learners by their education agency’s definitions. • Outcomes • Your research must include measures of academic outcomes. You may also include measures of social-behavioral competencies and employment and earnings if these are relevant to the research you are proposing. • Setting • Your research must be conducted in education settings that include grades 6 to 12 or on data collected from such settings. • You must plan to conduct research in at least two states or territories.

12. Center Proposal Narrative • Recommended to be no more than 35 pages • Five sections • Significance • Research Plan • Leadership and Outreach Activities • Management and Institutional Resources • Personnel

13. Center Proposal Narrative: Significance • The purpose of this section is to explain why it is important to study the policies, systems-level practices, and approaches you have identified as critical to improving secondary school ELs’ access to the general curriculum and education outcomes. • You must describe: • the conceptual framework that will guide your work; • the policies, systems-level practices, and approaches you will study; and • the research questions youwill address.

14. Center Proposal Narrative: Research Plan • The purpose of this section is to describe your research design(s) and methods for your focused program of research and demonstrate how they will allow you to address your research questions. • You must describe the: • characteristics of your sample(s); • research designs and methods for each study proposed; • power analysis, if a causal study is proposed; and • data analysis plans. • Organize the Research Plan into two subsections, one for each of the components of the Secondary School ELs Center’s focused program of research. • Explain how the two components of the focused program of research are complementary.

15. Center Proposal Narrative: National Leadership, Capacity-Building, and Outreach Activities • The purpose of this section is to describe the national leadership and outreach activities of the Secondary School ELs Center. • You must describe the • leadership, capacity-building, and outreach activities of the Secondary School ELs Center.

16. Examples of Leadership, Capacity-Building, and Outreach Activities • Develop and maintain Secondary Schools EL’s Center website • Facilitate learning and collaboration opportunities for or among state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) • Coordinate meetings, conferences, and other events • Opportunities for graduate students or early career researchers to contribute to the Center’s activities and gain meaningful experiences • Communication strategy to engage with policymakers, practitioners, the media, families and the general public about the Center’s work

17. Center Proposal Narrative: Management and Institutional Resources • The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that you have the organizational structure, institutional capacity, and access to the resources needed to carry out and effectively manage the project. • You must describe • the organizational structure of the Secondary School ELs Center; • plans and procedures for the overall management of the Secondary School ELs Center; and • the resources to conduct the work of the Secondary School ELs Center.

18. Personnel • The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that your team possesses the appropriate training and experience to carry out the focused program of research and national leadership activities and will commit sufficient time to the project. • You must describe your project team. • Identify and describe the following for all key personnel: • qualifications to carry out the proposed work; • roles and responsibilities within the project; • percent of time and calendar months per year (academic plus summer) to be devoted to the project; • past success at disseminating research findings to policymaker and practitioner audiences and in peer-reviewed scientific journals; • experience that is relevant to national leadership activities; and • experience and capacity to manage a project of this size and type.

19. Supplemental Studies • IES does not expect a detailed plan for these supplemental activities in the application. IES and the Center will work together to form the specifics. • Examples of Activities: meetings, smaller scale studies, dissemination work • You must set aside 5 percent to fund them. • You could offer a few suggestions for what you might do.

20. Recommendations for Strong Applications • IES expects your application to include at least two studies: • Identifying barriers to ELs’ access to the general curriculum • Examining an approach to overcoming these barriers • Each study should address the requirements and recommendations under the five sections of the Center Narrative. • As appropriate to your research questions, IES recommends that you refer to the Recommendations for project types in its Education Research Grants Program (CFDA 84.305A) to make sure your research plan is complete. These project types include Exploration, Development and Innovation, Efficacy and Follow-Up, and Measurement.

21. Award Limits 21

22. Next steps

23. The RFA and the Submission Guide • Carefully read the full RFA! • See Part 1 of the FY 2020 RFAs for a summary of changes to the RFA from the previous year • Read the Application Submission Guide For FY 2020 • This is now a separate document and is no longer embedded in the RFA. You can find it here: https://ies.ed.gov/funding/pdf/submissionguide.pdf. • You may need to set up accounts ahead of time, so don’t wait until the last minute! 23

24. Submitting a Letter of Intent (LOI) • Submit online at https://iesreview.ed.gov • Your LOI should include the following information: • Descriptive title • R&D Center topic that you will address • Brief description of the proposed R&D Center • Name, institutional affiliation, address, telephone number and email address of the Principal Investigator and any Co-Principal Investigators • Name and institutional affiliation of any key collaborators and contractors • Duration of the proposed R&D Center (attend to the Duration maximum) • Estimated total budget request (attend to the Budget maximums for your R&D Center topic)

25. Important Dates 25

26. In Summary • Read the Request for Applications • IES Funding Opportunities • Look at abstracts of funded projects (search for R&D centers) • NCER Projects • View IES on-demand webinars • Funding Opportunity Webinars • Review Resources for Researchers

27. Working with Program Officers • Discuss your Center idea with a program officer • Email a project synopsis or short questions • Schedule a time for a call • You will hear from us if you submit a letter of intent • Time permitting, we will review draft applications • We are available for discussion after you receive your reviews 27

28. Any Questions? Secondary School ELs Center Christina Chhin (Christina.Chhin@ed.gov)