NCER: Using Longitudinal Data to Support State Education Policymaking

Overview

Through this grant program, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) supports state agencies’ use of their state’s education longitudinal data systems (SLDS) to provide evidence for their own program and policy decisions, and those of their local education agencies. State agencies are encouraged to link their SLDS data to other available datasets to better support the research. These other data may have been collected by the state agency (or local education agencies) but not incorporated into the SLDS, by other state agencies (e.g., health, social services, unemployment insurance), or by other sources. Through this linking, additional information can be obtained to better understand and explain learner performance while in formal education, variation in learner performance, and/or learner outcomes after leaving formal schooling. State agencies may apply for these grants on their own or in collaboration with other organizations. Learners may be in pre-kindergarten, K-12, postsecondary, and/or adult education.

The IES Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems grant program provides grants, resources, and services to support states as they design, develop, implement, and expand their K-12 and P-20W (early learning through the workforce) longitudinal data systems. States use these systems to manage their education data, including student records, and to facilitate research aimed at improving student learning and outcomes and closing achievement gaps. 

1.    Eligible Populations
Research must focus on learners from one or more subgroups that are identified in the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 including: racial and ethnic minorities, learners living in low-income families, learners who are not proficient in English, learners who live in migrant or foster families, and/or learners who are homeless. Additional learner subgroups may be included. 

2.    Required Learner and Educator Outcomes
For the Using Data for Policymaking Grants program, the applicant must propose to measure academic outcomes of learners, which can reflect learning and achievement in content domains, as well as learners’ successful progression through education systems. IES is interested in the following academic outcomes:

• For prekindergarten - school readiness outcomes, including pre-reading, language, vocabulary, early-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics) knowledge, English language proficiency, digital literacy, and social, emotional, and behavioral competencies (including self-regulation and executive function) that prepare young children for school.
• For kindergarten through Grade 12 - learning, achievement, and higher order thinking in the academic content areas of literacy, STEM, and social studies;  English language proficiency; career and technical education (CTE) achievement or attainment; digital literacy; and progression through education systems as indicated by course and grade completion, retention, high school graduation, and dropout.  Given the rise in chronic absenteeism rates during the COVID pandemic and their current failure to return to pre-COVID levels, you may propose to use chronic absenteeism as your required measure of academic outcomes of K-12 learners for FY 2025.
• For postsecondary education - learning, achievement, and higher order thinking in postsecondary courses; and access to, persistence in, progress through, and completion of postsecondary education, which includes developmental education and corequisite support courses, bridge programs, for-credit and non-credit programs that lead to occupational credentials and certificates, and for-credit programs that lead to associate’s or bachelor’s degrees.
• For adult education,  achievement in literacy, English language proficiency, and numeracy, as well as access to, persistence in, progress through, and completion of adult education courses and programs including the full range of course and program types described in Title II of the Work Innovation and Opportunity Act of 2015 (WIOA).

In addition to including at least one of the academic outcomes described above, applicants are encouraged to also include social and behavioral competencies, defined as social and emotional skills, attitudes, and behaviors that are important to learners’ success in school and beyond, career and technical education outcomes, such as skills and credentials, and labor market outcomes, such as employment and earnings, when these are of interest to the state agency. IES also encourages applicants to include, along with academic outcomes, measures of student engagement and reengagement in their education such as student interest, motivation, and participation.

In addition, if you are examining the role of educators in improving learners’ academic outcomes, you must propose to measure educator knowledge, skills, beliefs, behaviors, and/or practices, in addition to the required measures of learners’ academic outcomes.

NOTE: Major changes to the Using Data for Policymaking program (ALN 84.305S) competition in FY 2025. [See the sponsor Notice of Funding Opportunity for complete details.]

Multiple Submissions: You may submit applications to more than one of the FY 2025 research grant programs offered through the U.S. Department of Education (ED), including those offered through IES as well as those offered through other offices and programs within ED. You may submit multiple applications to this grant program as long as they address different key issues, programs, or policies. However, you may submit a given application only once for the IES FY 2025 grant competitions, meaning you may not submit the same application or similar applications to multiple grant programs within IES, to multiple topics within a grant competition, or multiple times within the same topic. If you submit multiple similar applications, IES will determine whether and which applications will be accepted for review and/or will be eligible for funding.
[See the sponsor Notice of Funding Opportunity for complete details.]

Letter of Intent due: June 6, 2024
The LOI is non-binding and optional but strongly recommended.

Possible Start Dates: March 1, 2025 – September 1, 2025

The maximum duration of the award is 3 years, and the maximum award is $1 million.