This summer, we’ve been closely tracking multiple bills introduced in the Senate aimed at advancing data and evidence in education. This is a promising moment of bipartisan alignment on an issue central to ALI’s work: whether the federal government has the infrastructure to find out what works in education and is able to give states and districts the tools to act on that evidence. Right now, that infrastructure is only partially built. The Blueprint for the Future of the Federal Role in K-12 Education R&D lays out what a fuller version could look like, and this legislation is a concrete step in that direction. Read below for more information about these bills and the potential impact each could have if passed.
The RESULTS Act: Connecting Cross-Sector Data to Inform Policy
On Wednesday, July 29, 2026, Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) introduced the bipartisan Reimagining Education and Skills through Unified Longitudinal Talent Systems (RESULTS) Act. This legislation would modernize and consolidate the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems and Workforce Data Quality Initiative programs, helping states to connect data across early learning, K-12, postsecondary education, and the workforce. Right now, much of the data that exists is spread throughout disconnected systems and agencies.
Consider a student who earns an industry-recognized credential in high school, then applies for a job that requires it. Right now, whether that credential shows up anywhere in the state’s workforce data often depends on whether the K-12 and labor systems happen to be interoperable. In many states, this is not the case. The RESULTS Act aims to ensure that these connection points are not left to chance. Modernizing and consolidating these systems is foundational to the kind of evidence-based decision-making ALI has pushed states to adopt through our State Education R&D Policy Playbook, and this legislation would help ensure they have the tools to do it.
The Improving America’s Literacy Act: Putting Evidence Into Practice
Literacy is one of education R&D’s clearest success stories. Decades of reading research, translated through infrastructure like the Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs), gave states a roadmap for adopting the evidence-based Science of Reading framework for literacy instruction. The small group of states with demonstrated improvements in fourth-grade reading scores since the 2019 NAEP results, including Mississippi, points to their adoption of the Science of Reading as the driving force behind those outcomes.
The Improving America’s Literacy Act, introduced by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Brian Schatz (D-HI) on July 23, 2026, builds directly on that evidence by focusing funding toward reading instruction grounded in the Science of Reading movement. This is exactly the kind of evidence-to-practice pipeline that should be supported by the federal education R&D system: research produced the answer, and this bill is about making sure federal dollars actually follow it.
Why This Moment Matters
These bills complement ALI’s own top legislative priority, the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act. First introduced in the House in December 2023, the NEED Act has been reintroduced by Representatives Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR) and Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) in the current Congress. This legislation would establish a DARPA-style center for high-reward education R&D within IES. As AI reshapes classrooms and career opportunities alike, the country needs a mechanism built to test what works at the speed the moment demands. The NEED Act is that mechanism.
If the NEED Act is about generating new evidence, the RESULTS Act is about making sure states can use the evidence and data they already have. The Literacy Act shows what happens once good evidence exists and funding is directed to follow it. Together, these three bills point toward a more complete federal R&D system: one that can discover, test, connect, and act on evidence at every stage.
With ongoing threats to federal education research, this legislation shows there is real appetite to strengthen the infrastructure that helps the country understand what works in education and act on it. ALI will continue to support these bills as they move through Congress, and we encourage the broader coalition to do the same.
