Overview
In early 2025, the Alliance for Learning Innovation, along with InnovateEDU and the Learning Systems Leadership Network, convened the Future of Federal Education R&D Task Force in response to sweeping federal changes impacting Ed R&D. The task force agreed that the federal government has a vital role to play in supporting Ed R&D, namely to:
- Invest in research & innovation. Only the federal government has the resources and reach to fund research that uncovers solutions to the most urgent national challenges in education. It is uniquely positioned to facilitate the high-potential, high-impact R&D that leads to breakthrough innovations and to support the prototyping, testing, and scaling of cutting-edge educational tools and approaches.
- Empower state and local innovation and improvement. Through productive partnerships with state and local leaders, the federal government can provide targeted support that helps them implement evidence-based solutions tailored to their unique contexts, ultimately improving student outcomes.
- Collect and measure what matters. High-quality data underlies all R&D efforts. The federal government is uniquely equipped to collect, measure, and publish data that tells the American public about the condition of education and what works to improve it.
Read the high-level blueprint, longer report, and “Blueprint in Action” memos from the Task Force below.
Blueprint for the Future of the Federal Role in K-12 Education R&D
Read the blueprint developed by the Future of Federal Education R&D Task Force. It makes the case for the federal government’s vital role in the education R&D, and lays out the principles, key functions, and implementation conditions necessary for the future of federally-supported data, research, and innovation in education.
Report from the Future of Federal Education R&D Task Force
The Future of Federal Education R&D Task Force developed a report that expands on each element of the blueprint. The Alliance for Learning Innovation will be making regular changes and updates to this report based on feedback while also working on a series of related publications.
If you are interested in authoring a more detailed recommendation, please email future@alicoalition.org.
Blueprint in Action Memos
To advance key recommendations in the Blueprint for the Future of the Federal Role in K-12 Education R&D, ALI is releasing a series of memos that lay out how federal actors could implement these ideas.
Read the first memo and check back to read more as they are added.
Contributors
We are appreciative of the many contributors to this work across the Task Force. In particular, we express our thanks to the ALI Coalition members and the following individuals:
- AACTE: American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Jacqueline King
- Align R&D, Alexandra Resch
- Applied Learning Insights LLC, Philip Vahey
- Bipartisan Policy Center, Christy Wolfe
- Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) at ASU, Robin Lake
- Data Quality Campaign, Kate Tromble
- Data Science 4 Everyone, Zarek Drozda
- Digital Promise, Kimberly Smith
- EDGE Consulting Partners, Jim Kohlmoos
- Education Reimagined, Sarah Bishop-Root
- EducationCounsel, Dan Gordon
- FigStar Learning, Leslie Babinski
- Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chris Dede
- The Human Potential L.A.B., Pamela Cantor
- Impact4Scale, Karl Rectanus
- Improvement Scholars Network, Donald Peurach
- InnovateEDU, Erin Mote
- Insider Consulting, Jeanne Century
- Institute for Advancing Computing Education, Monica McGill
- jeffweldLLC, Jeffrey Weld
- JFF, Taylor Maag
- Leanlab Education, Katie Boody Adorno
- LearningForge LLC, Bror Saxberg
- National Center on Education and the Economy, Tracy Burns
- National Education Association, Stacey Pelika
- Nauset Public Schools, Taylor Wrye, Ed.D.
- New America, An-Me Chung
- Realign Education, Daniel Oscar
- Results for America, Sara Kerr
- Stanford Accelerator for Learning, Isabelle Hau
- The Center for Outcomes Based Contracting at the Southern Education Foundation, Cara Jackson
- The Education Collaboratory at Yale, Christina Cipriano
- The Learning Accelerator, Beth Holland
- The Learning Agency, Tasha Hensley and Julia Wolf
- The Study Group, Eric Tucker
- Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Michael Petrilli
- Transcend, Aylon Samouha
- University of Denver, Douglas Clements
- University of Washington, Dan Goldhaber
Contributing in their personal capacity:
- Robert Balfanz
- Karen Cator
- Jessica Early
- Daniel C. Edelson
- Aubrey Francisco
- Jerri Kemble
- Mark Liberman
- Norma Ming
- William Penuel
- Andy Rotherham
- Pati Ruiz
- Kathy Stack
- Tamara Tate
- Carrie Vail
- Elizabeth Tipton