Center for American Progress

A call on Congress to invest more in education R&D
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A call on Congress to invest more in education R&D

Neil Campbell and Abby Quirk argue that robust research and development infrastructure is necessary in efforts to rebuild the U.S. K-12 education system following the coronavirus pandemic.

Today the Thomas B. Fordham institute and the Center for American Progress published Moonshot For Education: A Federal Policy Proposal to Spur Effective Research and Development for K-12 Education. This proposal calls on Congress to substantially increase investment in education research and development (R & D), and is the culmination of the Moonshot For Kids initiative—a joint effort to highlight bipartisan interest in education R & D and gather bold new research ideas. Over 150 contestants participated in the Moonshot For Kids competition over the summer of 2019, and in November, ten finalists presented their “moonshot ideas” that would benefit from a sustained R & D infrastructure.

Following this event, our teams discussed the many great ideas our contestants shared, what we learned from the competition, and our research about what an even larger R & D infrastructure could look like. We finalized this policy proposal in early March but decided to delay its release as educators, policymakers, and the country at large suddenly grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic. While the pandemic is far from over, and its impact on education will endure long after schools re-open, we still wanted to move forward with this pre-pandemic policy proposal.

The above excerpt was originally published in Thomas B. Fordham Institute. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Neil Campbell

Director, Innovation

Abby Quirk

Former Policy Analyst