Following up from our policy call this afternoon, I dug up info on the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) and refreshed my memory of why it's worth paying attention to it, if it is in fact revived soon.

According to my notes, back in April of 2014, the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed a bipartisan ESRA reauthorization bill, HR 4366, called the Strengthening Education through Research Act.

That bill was silent on adult education, but then, some of us worked with Sen. Reed to insert strengthened adult education language into the Senate version of the bill when the Senate considered it. In September of 2014, the Senate HELP Committee, on a bi-partisan basis, adopted many pieces of the Reed proposal, supported by Sen. Baldwin. Very late in 2015, the Senate passed this version of the bill (S. 227 https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/s227/BILLS-114s227rfh.pdf) and sent it to the House. Unfortunately, the House did not take up the bill before it adjourned. There were issues about privacy, I think, that some House Republican were concerned about...

The 2015 Senate ESRA bill was important because it added adult education to the bill’s priorities:
The bill made it clear that the Institute of Education Sciences https://ies.ed.gov/' mission, which is to "provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education” includes adult education, and added “improving access to, opportunities for, and completion of postsecondary education and adult education” to the list of the Institute’s priorities.
It also added “State leaders in adult education” to the list of those who may serve on the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises and provides input to the Institute Director.
It added adult literacy data to the list of types of statistical data to be collected, reported, analyzed, and disseminated by the National Center for Education Statistics https://nces.ed.gov/, and added “access to, and opportunity for, adult education and literacy activities” to the list of topics that the Center is supposed to collect data on.
In the next Congress, of course, we’d be starting all over again with a new bill, but presumably adult educators (and researchers!) would want to see those same kinds of provisions in whatever they come up with this time. I sent a note over to Reed’s office to find out if they've heard anything about it.

Jeff

Jeff Carter
Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr

Senior Policy Advisor
National Coalition for Literacy
www.national-coalition-literacy.org http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/
jcarter@literacypolicy.org mailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org
President, Committee for Education Funding

Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility
1111 14th St, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
www.psr.org http://www.psr.org/ | jcarter@psr.org mailto:jcarter@psr.org

Nice detective work Jeff!  Good advice for going forward.

On Dec 5, 2018, at 5:29 PM, Jeff Carter <jcarter@literacypolicy.orgmailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org> wrote:

Following up from our policy call this afternoon, I dug up info on the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA) and refreshed my memory of why it's worth paying attention to it, if it is in fact revived soon.

According to my notes, back in April of 2014, the House Education and the Workforce Committee passed a bipartisan ESRA reauthorization bill, HR 4366, called the Strengthening Education through Research Act.

That bill was silent on adult education, but then, some of us worked with Sen. Reed to insert strengthened adult education language into the Senate version of the bill when the Senate considered it. In September of 2014, the Senate HELP Committee, on a bi-partisan basis, adopted many pieces of the Reed proposal, supported by Sen. Baldwin. Very late in 2015, the Senate passed this version of the bill (S. 227https://www.congress.gov/114/bills/s227/BILLS-114s227rfh.pdf) and sent it to the House. Unfortunately, the House did not take up the bill before it adjourned. There were issues about privacy, I think, that some House Republican were concerned about...

The 2015 Senate ESRA bill was important because it added adult education to the bill's priorities:

• The bill made it clear that the Institute of Education Scienceshttps://ies.ed.gov/' mission, which is to "provide national leadership in expanding fundamental knowledge and understanding of education" includes adult education, and added "improving access to, opportunities for, and completion of postsecondary education and adult education" to the list of the Institute's priorities.
• It also added "State leaders in adult education" to the list of those who may serve on the National Board for Education Sciences, which advises and provides input to the Institute Director.
• It added adult literacy data to the list of types of statistical data to be collected, reported, analyzed, and disseminated by the National Center for Education Statisticshttps://nces.ed.gov/, and added "access to, and opportunity for, adult education and literacy activities" to the list of topics that the Center is supposed to collect data on.

In the next Congress, of course, we'd be starting all over again with a new bill, but presumably adult educators (and researchers!) would want to see those same kinds of provisions in whatever they come up with this time. I sent a note over to Reed's office to find out if they've heard anything about it.

Jeff

Jeff Carter
Cell: (202) 374-4387 | @jeffcrtr

Senior Policy Advisor
National Coalition for Literacy
www.national-coalition-literacy.orghttp://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/
jcarter@literacypolicy.orgmailto:jcarter@literacypolicy.org
President, Committee for Education Funding

Executive Director
Physicians for Social Responsibility
1111 14th St, NW, Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
www.psr.orghttp://www.psr.org/ | jcarter@psr.orgmailto:jcarter@psr.org

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