Inside IES Research

Notes from NCER & NCSER

Program Update: ED/IES SBIR Announces the Opening of its 2025 Program Solicitations and Recaps its 2024 Awards

The U.S. Department of Education and IES’s Small Business Innovation Research program (ED/IES SBIR) funds entrepreneurial developers and research partners to create the next generation of education technology products for students, teachers, and administrators. The program emphasizes an iterative research and development process and pilot studies to evaluate the feasibility, usability, and promise of new products to improve education outcomes. The program also focuses on commercialization after development is complete so that the products can be disseminated and be sustained over time. Each year, millions of students in thousands of schools around the country use ED/IES SBIR products.

 

The ED/IES SBIR 2025 Program Is Now OPEN

On Friday, November 8, 2025, ED/IES SBIR released three FY2025 program solicitations, including:

  • The Phase IA solicitation requests proposals for the development of prototypes of novel education technology products where no or limited previous research and development has already occurred.
  • The Phase IB solicitation requests proposals for the development of a new component to be added to an existing research-based education technology prototype or product.
  • The Direct to Phase II solicitation requests proposals for the development of new education technology products to ready evidence-based innovations for use at scale. Researcher(s) at a university or non-profit education organization must have created the existing evidence-based innovation.

The proposal submission date and time is January 8, 2025 at 11AM EST. See this website page for more information and for URL links to download each solicitation on SAM.gov.   

 

ED/IES SBIR Recaps its 2024 Awards

For FY2024, ED/IES SBIR made 23 SBIR awards, 12 Phase I, 8 Phase II, and 3 Direct to Phase II projects. Phase I projects ($250,000 over 8 months) include development and evaluation of a new prototype. Phase I awardees will be eligible to apply for a Phase II award in FY 2025. Phase II projects ($1M over 2 years) include full scale development and evaluation of new products initially developed with FY 2023 Phase I awards. Direct to Phase II projects ($1M over 2 years) occur without a prior Phase I award and focus on the development and evaluation of new products to prepare existing researcher-developed evidence-based innovations for use at scale. Watch short videos with more information about the ED/IES SBIR 2024 Phase II and Direct to Phase II projects here.

 

 

The FY 2024 ED/IES SBIR awards highlight trends in the field of education technology.

Trend 1: Using artificial intelligence to personalize learning and generate insights to inform tailored instruction. About half of the new projects are developing artificial intelligence (AI) based software components to personalize learning and instruction. These projects take advantage of AI functionalities to generate new or adjust existing content to meet the needs of individual learners, offer real-time feedback to scaffold learning, and produce real-time prompts and insights that educators can use to track student progress and adjust instruction accordingly.

  • In the area of English language arts, Kibeam Learning, Inc. (formerly Kinoo, Inc) will support children as they independently explore and read books; Common Ground Publishing , LLC will support student writing; RapStudy Inc. will create songs with customized lyrics for academic learning; and with two new Phase I awards, Charmtech Labs LLC will develop two new prototypes, one to add items for an existing reading assessment (ReadBasix) and another to create new localized and culturally responsive assessment items to measure reading and inform instruction.
  • For English learners, StoryWorld International Corp will personalize vocabulary acquisition, and Linguistic Inc will generate vocational resources for adult English learners.
  • In math, Inletech LLC will allow students to create personalized stories to explore and learn math in a simulated real-world context, and Oko Labs, Inc. will engage students in a collaborative process to solve puzzles by doing math.
  • For social, behavioral, and mental health, Edifii, Inc will develop a chatbot to provide guidance counselors insights on how individual students are planning for their future, and Sown to Grow, Inc. will create a logic-based algorithm to identify students at risk for mental health challenges and inform intervention.

Trend 2: Engaging students through games, interactive and hands-on activities, and collaborative learning. Projects are designing innovative learning technologies to engage students through pedagogies employing game-based, collaborative learning, and hands-on activities.

Trend 3: Advancing research to practice at scale through education technology. Three Direct to Phase II awards will ready existing evidence-based innovations for use at scale through the development of new education technology products.


Stay tuned for updates on Facebook and LinkedIn as IES continues to support innovative forms of technology.

Edward Metz (Edward.Metz@ed.gov) is the program manager of the ED/IES SBIR program.

Laurie Hobbs (Laurie.Hobbs@ed.gov) is the program analyst of the ED/IES SBIR program.

Introducing the 2024-2025 Open Science Interns from the Virtual Student Federal Service Program

This year, we have four student interns who are joining IES from the U.S. Department of State’s Virtual Student Federal Service (VSFS) Program. These doctoral student interns are the first cohort of IES open science interns to work together collaboratively. They will be supporting NCER and NCSER in understanding and communicating about research in education and special education. Under the mentorship of two IES program officers, Helyn Kim and Amy Sussman, the interns will use and refine their knowledge and skills of education research to help us communicate about our work and investments to the broader public, including those who can use the information for practice or policymaking. We asked the interns to tell us about themselves, their research interests, their goals for this internship, and a fun fact.

Stephanie Estrera, Florida State University

Hi y’all, I am a third-year PhD student in developmental psychology at Florida State University and an IES predoctoral fellow. Prior to moving to Tallahassee, Florida and starting my PhD, I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin (hook’em!). In 2018-20, I was an education volunteer with Peace Corps Philippines, which is an experience that has deeply influenced my current research interests and goals.  Broadly, I am interested in using behavioral genetic methods to examine the direct role of a child’s environment on their reading outcomes. Some of my current work is focused on children’s reading motivation, measurement of family stressors, and the role of the home and school environments on children’s reading development. I believe that the way forward in producing relevant and replicable research is through open science and transparency collaboration. Currently, I am a member of the LDbase team, an NIH-funded data repository and open science resource for educational and developmental science communities.

One of my goals during this internship is to learn best practices for research dissemination for education stakeholders outside of the scientific community. The work conducted by education researchers affects the everyday American, but it can be a challenge to make those findings understandable. As a researcher, I believe it is the scientific community’s duty to disseminate our work in a way that resonates with other educational stakeholders so we can move forward and improve education for all. I'm excited for this internship, because I think it will be an excellent opportunity to hone and practice my science communication skills.

Fun Fact: Outside of my work, I am an ocean-enthusiast and Open Water SCUBA certified! Some of my favorite marine life encounters include whale sharks, manatees, sea turtles, octopuses, and the humble box fish (my favorite reef fish).

Heidi Hines, University of California, Irvine

I am a third-year PhD student in education at the University of California, Irvine. Before starting my PhD program, I worked in the public school system as a school psychologist. My experience as a school psychologist and observing the prevalence of reading difficulties among children led me to become interested in researching early literacy instruction and intervention. My research interests include early literacy for all students, especially those with disabilities. I feel compelled to learn more about research in early literacy and make this research easily accessible to the public to help guide instructional practices.

One of my goals in this internship is to learn more about the strategies used to disseminate research and how those strategies are implemented. Another goal is to increase my skills in sharing research in a practitioner-friendly manner. I’m excited about this internship opportunity as it will provide hands-on experience collaborating with experts and disseminating research.

Fun Fact: I love to run! I ran cross country and track throughout high school and college. I’ve continued to run since then, and I’ve completed 6 full marathons and over a dozen half marathons.

Audra Johnston-Zamora, University of Oregon

I am currently a second-year PhD student at the University of Oregon in the department of special education and clinical services. My educational pursuits have very much been influenced by my own difficult upbringing and experiences in the foster care system. During my own journey towards well-being, I learned about trauma-informed practices, the neurobiological implications of exposure to trauma during early childhood, and the evidenced-based interventions that may serve to buffer those life-long implications. Since then, whether I took on the role of a classroom teacher, coach to other educators, or future researcher, my “why” is and always will be to create a loving, compassionate, healing educational space where all children (and even adults) can thrive.

Through my experiences with this internship, my goal is to develop my communication and research skills. Until recently, even as an educator, I was hardly exposed to empirical research or taught the skills needed to truly understand it. Yet, so many wonderful advances and knowledge about best practices can be understood through research. In this internship, I plan on strengthening my ability to concisely synthesize critical information taken from research studies in an effort to address the research to practice gap.

Fun Fact: I am a Disney fanatic! One year I spent a total of 22 days at Disneyland Park with my family. I have numerous Disney tattoos and dresses, and I can recite the songs and dialogue for Beauty and the Beast from beginning to end.

Bhabika Joshi, Vanderbilt University

I am currently a third-year PhD student in special education at Vanderbilt University, with a focus on quantitative research, culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students, and autism. I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and have previously served as senior director of clinical services. I earned my master’s in applied behavior analysis and special education from Vanderbilt University in 2020 and hold dual undergraduate degrees in English and communication sciences and disorders (speech language pathology) from The University of Texas at Austin, with a concentration on autism research. In 2018, I undertook a Fulbright fellowship in Nepal, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State.

My research is driven by a deep passion for advancing knowledge in the autism community, including advocating for families and caretakers of children with autism and identifying culturally responsive avenues of support for families and children with autism.  During this internship, I look forward to deepening my understanding of quantitative research methodologies and exploring how they can be applied to support culturally and linguistically diverse children with autism.

Fun Fact: Outside of my professional pursuits, I enjoy reading, writing, hiking, and exploring new places. I am currently training for a trek to Everest Base Camp in December 2024.


This blog was produced by Helyn Kim (helyn.kim@ed.gov), NCER program officer, and Amy Sussman (amy.sussman@ed.gov), NCSER program officer.

IES Makes 13 Awards to Statistical and Research Methodology in Education Projects

IES is pleased to announce the newest set of Statistical and Research Methodology in Education (Stats/Methods) investments: 13 projects, nine of which will create innovative methodological products and four of which will develop toolkits to help education scientists understand and apply recently developed methods in their work. This set of Stats/Methods projects will receive more than $9.3 million in funding over the next three years.   

Projects funded under the Stats/Methods program support the development of products (for example, new and improved methods, toolkits, guidelines, review papers, compendia, curated data resources, and software) that help education scientists as they strive for rigor in their research. The Stats/Methods program has funded several widely used statistical software packages, such as Stan, HLM, and Blimp. Stats/Methods projects have also produced papers and presentations that have advanced the theory and practice of randomized trials, psychometrics, and Bayesian statistics in education.

The latest awards from the Stats/Methods program focus on four different areas to support education research. Collectively, these 13 projects will result in innovative products, including templates, new methods, software, tools, practice guides, visual displays, databases, and language models that researchers can use to improve the rigor of education research.

IES is looking forward to partnering with these project teams to advance education research, policy, and practice through the development and dissemination of innovative methods.


This blog was written by Charles Laurin (Charles.Laurin@ed.gov), NCER program officer.

NCER Intern Reflects on a Summer of Supporting Public Access Implementation

IES offers internship opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students interested in learning about the research grant making process and contributing to the work of the different centers. Internships are coordinated through the U.S. Department of Education’s Student Volunteer Unpaid Internship Program and are available throughout the year.

This summer, NCER was fortunate to have Christine White join us. Christine is a doctoral student in developmental psychology at Florida State University and an IES Pre-Doctoral Fellow working with the Florida Center for Reading Research. She worked with Elizabeth Albro, NCER commissioner, and Laura Namy, NCER associate commissioner for the Teaching and Learning Division, to co-design and complete an internship focused on public access implementation. In this blog, Christine shares her experiences and insights from her summer internship opportunity.

Photo of Christine White

Why I Applied for the Internship

As I approached the end of the second year in my doctoral program, I realized that a career in academia does not align well with my goals and interests. I am much more interested in evaluating, communicating, and using research to inform practice and policy than in asking novel questions and designing studies. Around this time, I also began working as part of the LDbase data repository team at Florida State, where I learned how open practices, such as preregistration, sharing data, and making scholarly publications freely accessible, can enhance the credibility, reach, and efficiency of research. I developed a strong interest in understanding the landscape of barriers and incentives influencing educational researchers in the adoption of open practices.

When I attended the American Educational Research Association conference in spring 2023, my goal was to learn about internship opportunities in organizations outside of academia. When I stopped by the IES table, I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Elizabeth Albro. It quickly became clear that a summer internship with NCER would be a great fit. I learned that IES had recently developed a new plan to increase public access to federally funded research, and that one of their upcoming goals was to identify barriers grantees may face in complying with revised requirements for making data and publications publicly accessible at the time of publication. Thus, the timing was perfect for me to join NCER as a public access implementation intern and contribute to this initiative.

My Internship Experience

I was able to intern remotely from Tallahassee, Florida. Under the mentorship of Drs. Namy and Albro, my role was to identify anticipated challenges that grantees might face in meeting the revised requirements under the new public access plan. I met with NCER and NCSER program officers to discuss unique considerations for data sharing across different awards and project types, co-led a Virtual Office Hour session where over 70 prospective applicants and grantees shared questions and concerns about the revised requirements and expectations, and attended NCER and inter-agency meetings to learn more about the federal government’s vision for and progress towards increasing public access to research.

Through these activities, I learned about the concerns education researchers have about sharing research data and publications, such as navigating restrictive data use agreements and journal policies, selecting an appropriate online repository for sharing data, and deciding how to curate and share research data that may be at particular risk for reidentification (for example, rich video or audio data, or data collected in small or rural schools). As part of my internship, I documented these observations and began to develop ideas for resources IES could develop that may help address common concerns, such as revising existing data sharing guides to contain more detailed information about deidentifying and curating data types beyond quantitative data and creating a list of vetted data repositories of interest to educational researchers.

What I Learned from the Internship

First, through attending NCER and inter-agency meetings, I learned a great deal about the grant-making process and how government agencies operate and collaborate to support research. It was fascinating to see how NCER functions and fits within the larger systems of IES and the Department of Education.

Second, I learned about the federal government’s initiatives to increase openness and transparency in research. It was inspiring to be able to contribute during this period of active transition towards more accessible research across agencies and to hear innovative ideas for enabling and incentivizing researcher engagement in open practices from individuals with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and expertise. I greatly appreciated that leadership at NCER and other agencies acknowledged that achieving a culture of open and accessible research is not just about introducing requirements but developing infrastructure and resources to flexibly support the people who are making it happen.

Finally, connecting with applicants and grantees gave me new insight into the challenges researchers encounter when sharing data and publications and the types of supports they need or expect from their funding agency. This knowledge has been invaluable not only for directing my activities during the internship but for informing my own research on researcher engagement in open science practices.

What is next for me?

I recently defended my preliminary exams, and I will soon begin working on my dissertation. After completing my PhD, I plan to apply to post-doctoral fellowships and positions that reflect my interest in evaluating and applying educational research in non-academic contexts and thinking “big picture” about how research can support practice, policy, and ultimately, improve the lives of teachers and students.


This blog was written by Christine White, public access implementation intern, NCER.

Introducing the 2024-25 Data Science Interns at NCSER

IES is proud to introduce the 2024-25 cohort of NCSER data science interns. These interns come to us through the U.S. State Department’s Virtual Student Federal Service Program. Under the mentorship of Sarah Brasiel, four students will support the NCSER by engaging in data mining from IES grants and related publications and creating visualizations to represent what IES has funded and learned. We asked this year’s interns to tell us about themselves, why they are interested in an internship, and a “fun fact” to share. Here’s what they said.

Aditya Daga

Headshot of Aditya Daga

I am a rising sophomore at Rice University, studying computer science and statistics. Previously, I was a research intern with George Mason University, using machine learning to predict student failure based on their tendencies to procrastinate. My team was able to get our research published, and this experience got me very interested in the intersection between data science and education. When I saw the opening for the data science internship at the IES, I immediately applied because I want to continue using data science to make an impact in educational policies and practices. My career goal is to become a data scientist, and I believe this internship will provide me with necessary hands-on experience in applying data science to real-world challenges. Fun Fact: I have traveled to Dubrovnik, Croatia, where my favorite show, Game of Thrones, was filmed!

Marissa Kuehn               

Headshot of Marissa Kuehn

I am a 4th-year undergraduate student at the University of Toledo. I am pursuing degrees in disability studies and data science. I am passionate about data and disability justice and aspire to blend analytics with advocacy. My current interests include examining the representation of people with disabilities in data practices and research and brainstorming changes to the collection and analysis of disability data that informs resource allocation, legislative changes, and more. My past work experience as a research assistant with Dr. Becca Monteleone on the Plain Truth Project, coursework in data science, lived experience of disability, and long-time passion for disability justice led me to this internship last year. I am excited to continue exploring data analysis and visualization techniques during a second internship this year because I enjoy the opportunity to apply what I’m learning in the classroom. After completion of my degrees, I hope to obtain a role in the data science field and continue my advocacy for disability justice. Fun Fact: I’m also an artist! I love making abstract watercolor paintings.

Sam Melenciuc

Headshot of Sam Melenciuc

I am pursuing a master’s degree in information science at Pennsylvania State University. In the past, I have taken database classes that piqued my interest to continue learning more about data manipulation, analysis, and visualization. My goal for the future is to be surrounded by peers who are passionate about the work they do and encourage and challenge me to be a better worker and person all around. I truly believe this internship opportunity will open doors for me to collaborate with brilliant and talented minds where we will make an impact that matters. Fun Fact: The best view I’ve ever seen was at the top of a mountain in Madeira, Portugal.

Laura Roberts

Headshot of Laura Roberts

I am a 2nd-year doctoral student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, focusing on special education. With 10 years of teaching experience covering mathematics in general education and special education at the secondary and elementary levels, I am excited to focus my research efforts on secondary students who struggle with math. This internship experience is a chance to broaden my knowledge of data science efforts and devote my time to the necessary and impactful work that NCSER contributes to the education field. Fun Fact: When not focusing on my studies, I enjoy spending time with my horse and dog at the farm I am fortunate to call home!

This blog was produced by Sarah Brasiel, NCSER program officer.