Federal Govt Pushes For Innovation In Education

The Office of Innovation and Improvement is a nimble, entrepreneurial arm of the U.S. Department of Education. It makes strategic investments in innovative educational practices through two dozen discretionary grant programs and coordinates the public school choice and supplemental educational services provisions of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as amended by No Child Left Behind. It also serves as the Department’s liaison and resource to the nonpublic education community through theOffice of Non-Public Education. Additionally, OII administers a number of teacher quality programs including the Teaching Ambassador Fellowship initiative which brings teacher leaders from our nation’s public schools to the Department to participate in a national dialogue about public education. The Office helps to develop guidance on provisions and programs related to its work under No Child Left Behind. OII also created the Innovations in Education guides which detail how school systems around the country have put the No Child Left Behind Act to work.

The Office of Innovation and Improvement is headed by Assistant Deputy Secretary Jim Shelton.

WHO: We are seeking peer reviewers from various backgrounds and professions including: PK-12 teachers and principals, college and university educators, researchers and evaluators, social entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, grant makers and managers, and others with education expertise. The selected reviewers should have expertise in at least one of the following areas: education reform and policy, evidence, innovation, strategy, and application review as defined below.

Education Reform and Policy

Broad understanding of each of the four education reform areas highlighted in the i3 program (teachers and principals, data systems, standards and assessments, school turnaround), and specific expertise in at least one of these areas
Understanding of and experience with implementing student-achievement-focused reform plans at scale in order to know what approaches have the greatest likelihood of success at the school, district, and State levels
Experience in implementing effective classroom instruction
Policy implementation experience and/or legal expertise

Evidence

Experience managing, conducting, or reviewing rigorous evaluation
Understanding of education research and recent findings of the relevant literature
Knowledge of education data sources and measures of program implementation and outcomes
Familiarity with experimental and quasi-experimental research designs
Fluency in reviewing organizational and project evaluation plans and evaluation results

Innovation

Experience starting, growing, leading, and/or supporting innovative projects or organizations
Experience leading or helping organizations to develop business models, create plans for scale and sustainability and build capacity to achieve goals

Strategy

Knowledge of effective operational and organizational/management infrastructures required to scale with quality (e.g., people, processes, accountability structures, technology systems, program and grant management)
Knowledge of or experience with building effective partnerships and successfully engaging diverse groups of stakeholders