[NLA] OERI/NCSALL and research grants

[hartman]

Andrea

I was thinking of elaborating on Cecil's response and wishing I could
draw on my computer screen and send it to you.  Then I saw your
response.

I would just add a few things to Cecil's response.

As Cecil mentioned, OERI is the office within the US Department of
Education (ED) which funds most (but not all) of their research.  It is
on the same line on the organizational chart as other "offices", such as
the Office of Vocational and Adult Education.  They each have an
Assistant Secretary that reports to the Secretary.

Historically, OERI has not received a very large appropriation (as was
pointed out in the article David posted).  When the legislation that
authorizes funding for OERI has been written in the past, Congress
required that OERI contain "research centers."  The other way that
research has funded by OERI is through solicited and non-solicited
competitive grants.  However, because of the authorizing and
appropriations laws, the vast majority of OERI's money has gone to the
centers.  (Why this is the case is an interesting story of policy and
politics.) 

The research centers usually have broad areas of study ("study of adult
literacy and learning").  Typically, a group of universities (actually a
group of researchers from several universities) get together and write a
proposal.  The proposals usually have a wide variety of studies that
relate to the broad area of study.  If there is more than one proposal,
the winner is chosen on a competitive basis.  

The way the process and system is set up, you tend to get a lot of good
breadth but not as much depth on a single issue or "question."  It just
does not pay to focus on one or two issues the way the competition is
set up.

The research on reading announced the other day is intended to be a more
focused research effort around reading in adults.  It is money in
addition to the funds that flows through OERI to NCSALL.  Any
researcher(s) at NCSALL or anywhere else in the country could compete.
It certainly will tie into the work of NCSALL, NCAL and other research
centers that receive federal funds through other channels.  For example,
John Strucker's important work at NCSALL was used in writing the
background documents for this competition.

It is great news for our field that so many agencies and offices view
this work as important to their mission and provided support.  The
awardees are an excellent slate of people.  Top notch researchers who
understand the unique (and common) learning challenges of adults.

Great to have good news for the field!
    
Andy Hartman
Director, Policy and Research
The Bell Policy Center
1801 Broadway, Suite 280
Denver, Colorado   80202
303-297-0456 (ph)
303-297-0460 (f)
hartman at thebell.org


-----Original Message-----
From: nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org
[mailto:nla-admin at lists.literacytent.org] On Behalf Of
AWilder106 at aol.com
Sent: Friday, October 18, 2002 2:09 PM
To: nla at lists.literacytent.org
Subject: Re: [NLA] OERI/NCSALL and research grants

Dear Cecil,

Thanks very much for the information, I appreciate your help in figuring
this 
out.  Another question--do you have a web address which would show a
chart of 
how these agencies are related?  I'm trying to get a visual scan of
these 
relationships.

Andrea
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