This statutory report presents the activities and accomplishments of the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Inspector General (OIG) from October 1, 2024, through March 31, 2025. The audits, investigations, and related work highlighted in this report are products of OIG's mission to identify and stop fraud, waste, and abuse; and promote…

The set of appendices in this volume is a companion to the report "Federal Efforts Towards Investing in Innovation in Education Through the i3 Fund: A Summary of Grantmaking and Evidence-Building." The goal of the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) was to build high-quality evidence about effective…

Finding innovative educational strategies that work is important to help improve student learning and close equity gaps nationwide. The goal of the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) was to build high-quality evidence about effective educational strategies and to expand implementation of these strategies. Between 2010…

The U.S. Department of Education (Education) plays a key role in supporting educational opportunities for K-12 students, including awarding grants and overseeing compliance with federal education laws. Over the past decade, Education's grant awards have generally increased in number and size. Using Education budget data, it was determined that in…

The U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) annual plan identifies the audits, inspections, and other activities that the OIG intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's citizens and students. The FYs 2025-2026 Annual Plan details the assignment areas OIG plans…

In 2012, the United States Department of Education announced the Race to the Top-District grants. One joint award was made to two large educational cooperatives in the same state that together represented 111 mostly rural schools in 22 districts. One of the grant's identified four essential projects was the implementation of personalized learning.…

Every child deserves access to a quality education, and teaching is a core determinant of students' educational experience. Quality teaching is correlated with better learning outcomes, increased student achievement, and higher salaries and other benefits in adulthood. In this report, the Center for American Progress proposes a new federal…

This policy brief summarizes and critiques the findings of the US Department of Education's Section 5005 Report on Rural Education. In September of 2018, the Department of Education released the "Section 5005 Report on Rural Education: Final Report." The report was written in response to a provision of the Every Student Succeeds Act of…

On Dec. 10, 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (P.L. 114-95) became law. ESSA primarily reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), but includes other provisions as well. Among these, Section 5005 requires the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) to "review the organization, structure, and process…

This report is an evaluation of the Investing in Innovation (i3) program, a tiered-evidence grantmaking initiative at the U.S. Department of Education. The program's primary purpose is to support the development, testing, and scaling of field-initiated programs for high-need students in K-12 education. This report reviews the program's early…

Over the last 25 years, the federal Charter Schools Program (CSP) has invested nearly $5.3 billion into the charter school sector, directing funds to schools in 43 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Approximately 60% of students in CSP grantee schools are from low-income backgrounds and 64% are Black or Hispanic. The CSP has played a critical role in…

This study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was a deep descriptive analysis of the schools who received the United States Department of Education Green Ribbon School (ED-GRS) award over the first three years of the program: 2012, 2013, and 2014. In addition to a descriptive overview, the Ecological Democracy for Whole School…

The FNS Research Corner provides a continuing series to summarize recently completed and current research conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) in the area of child nutrition. Summaries of recently completed research projects, research conducted through grant activities, and in-progress research are…

This report is the second from the congressionally-mandated evaluation of the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) program authorized by the Education Sciences Reform Act (P.L. 107-279). For this report, 8 (out of 24) impact study reports produced by the RELs under their 2006-2011 contracts and published by IES were rated by expert panels for…

Evaluations of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) based in part on the performance of program completers have emerged as an education reform strategy in several states and have become central features of the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant competition. The objective of this policy review is to examine how the state of Tennessee measured and reported…