Building the Capacity to Experiment in Schools: A Case Study of the Institute of Educational Sciences in the US Department of Education

This article is about building new research capacities to foster a fundamental shift in research methods. It examines in detail the new R&D policy of the US Department of Education, which is designed to dramatically increase the number of experiments conducted in schools despite limitations in the supply of seasoned experimenters. The article reviews the various policy mechanisms that are being used both to implement this new pro-experimental policy and to increase the supply of experimenters. It also very briefly discusses some of the potential positive and negative effects of pursuing such an R&D policy.