Innovative Model Provider Letter in support of the NEED Act

Representatives Bonamici and Fitzpatrick reintroduced the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act On December 11, 2023. This legislation would authorize a fifth, new center at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) called the National Center for the Advanced Development in Education (NCADE). Modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), would prioritize the development, not just research, of breakthrough technologies, new pedagogical approaches and innovative learning models.

New Classrooms, joined by sixteen other innovative model providers, wrote in strong support of the reintroduction of the NEED Act due to its potential to create dramatic breakthroughs in teaching and learning. Despite having success in developing and implementing innovative learning models in many school communities across the country, we believe that this strong public investment is needed in education research and development to have a truly transformative impact. Read the letter below.

Dear Representatives Bonamici and Fitzpatrick,

We write in strong support of the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act. This bill will prioritize and deliver a much needed federal investment in developing innovative new approaches to teaching and learning that enable schools to meet the unique strengths and needs of our students.

We are a group of education innovators that believe that our nation’s central approach to school – which has oriented around an individual teacher guiding the instruction of a cohort of same-aged students through a uniform curriculum – has always made it impossible to help each student reach their full potential. The COVID-19 pandemic has also only added new challenges that make this existing industrial paradigm not only unsustainable for teachers, students, and their parents but an economic liability as well. The Hoover Institution estimates that learning loss caused by the pandemic will result in states’ GDP averaging almost two percent lower every year for the rest of the 21st century. 

That is why we are actively engaged in building capacity and supporting demand for innovative learning models, an approach to learning that looks beyond the age-based classroom to emphasize mastery in a subject through personalized learning. These models – which can be subject-specific, grade span-specific, or apply more broadly as innovative schools – enable a different way of ‘doing school’ in ways that drive both excellence and equity. As a holistic, school-based program, these models integrate teachers and technology so that schools can systematically support a personalized approach to education. Innovative learning models are developed organizations that leverage research and development and then partner with schools to support high-quality implementation.

While our organizations have had success in developing and implementing innovative learning models in many school communities across the county, they simply cannot emerge at a scalable and transformational level without a strong public investment in education research and development (R&D). Strong federal investments in early-stage R&D in defense, health care, and energy have nearly tripled in the past 20 years and led to significant breakthrough innovations, while the investment in education R&D has not even kept up with the rate of inflation. As a result, schools are struggling to prepare students to be productive members of the workforce and maximize their potential.

The NEED Act provides this much needed investment in education R&D by authorizing the creation of the National Center for Advanced Development and Education (NCADE) at the Institute of Education Sciences. Modeled after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), NCADE will fund high-risk, high-reward projects developed by innovative organizations, selected based on their potential to create dramatic breakthroughs in learning and teaching, especially for the most underserved populations. The center will provide a more nimble and responsive program management approach than currently in place and focus on the development, not just the research, of breakthrough technologies, new pedagogical approaches, and innovative learning models that put students at the center of its work. This federal investment will spark innovation at State Education Agencies (SEA) and Local Education Agencies (LEA) and help build local infrastructure to sustain the work. 

It is long past time that we rethink our current educational delivery model and modernize it in ways that can truly deliver on both excellence and equity. It is time to create the space to discover those new ways so that each student has the true opportunity to realize his or her full potential.

Thank you for your leadership on this issue. We stand ready to help you in ensuring that this legislation becomes a reality.

Sincerely,