American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

• Between 2019 and 2022, the Institute of Educational Sciences, the research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Education Department, distributed US$473 million in 255 grants to improve educational outcomes.
• In 2021, colleges and universities spent approximately $1.6 billion on educational research.
• The Educational Research Information Center, a federally run repository, houses 1.6 million educational research sources in over 1,000 scholarly journals.
• Each year, for instance, more than 15,000 educators and researchers gather to present or discuss educational research findings at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association.

Growing gaps

• During the same period, NAEP outcomes show stagnated growth in reading achievement among fourth graders.
• By eighth grade, there is a greater gap in reading achievement between the highest- and lowest-achieving students.
• Some education experts have even suggested that the chances for progress get dimmer for students as they get older.
• Here are four things I believe can be done in order to make sure that educational research is actually being applied.

1. Build better relationships with school leaders

Educational researchers can reach out to school leaders before doing their research in order to design research based on the needs of schools and schoolchildren. If school leaders can see how educational research can specifically benefit their school community, they may be more likely to implement findings and recommendations from the research.

2. Make policy and practice part of the research process

• By implementing new policies and practices based on research findings, researchers can work with school leaders to do further research to see if the new policies and practices actually work.
• Through the fund, $679 million was distributed through 67 grants – and 12 of those 67 funded projects improved student outcomes.

3. Rethink how research impact is measured

As part of the national rankings for colleges of education – that is, the schools that prepare schoolteachers for their careers – engagement with public schools could be made a factor in the rankings. The rankings could also include measurable educational impact.

4. Rethink and redefine how research is distributed

• Research findings written in everyday language could be distributed at conferences frequented by public school teachers and in the periodicals that they read.
• If research findings are to make a difference, I believe there has to be a stronger focus on using research to bring about real-world change in public schools.

• FPF Files Comments for the FTC Health Breach Notification Rule Addressing Specific Definitions and Clarity of Scope
  On August 8th, the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) filed comments with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (the Commission) regarding the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to clarify the scope and application of the Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR).
• The HBNR was promulgated in 2009 as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as a breach of security rule.
• The cases indicated a shift in the interpretation of “breach of security” by the Commission that drew many proto-typical practices into scope.
• The NPRM seeks to clarify this broadened scope which has amalgamated traditional breaches of security with nascent breaches of privacy.

• WASHINGTON, March 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- HOMER BUILDING; On the eve of St. Patrick’s Day at a ceremony in Washington D.C., the Speaker Emerita of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, received a prestigious Honorary Doctorate from Ulster University.
• Speaker Emerita Pelosi has taken an active and high-profile interest in Northern Ireland and is an ardent supporter of the Belfast Good Friday Agreement.
• Vice-Chancellor and President of Ulster University, Professor Paul Bartholomew commented: “Ulster University was honoured to host the Speaker Emerita and a Congressional delegation on our Derry~Londonderry campus in April 2019 during a trip to Northern Ireland.
• “On that visit, the Speaker Emerita Pelosi recognised the strong bond between the United States of America and Northern Ireland, and the importance of people, reconciliation and hope for the future.

• Recuro Health (Recuro), an integrated digital health solutions company that transitions the U.S. healthcare system from a reactive, disease-focused model to a population health, outcomes approach, today announces the appointment of Josh Nordtvedt as senior vice president, Payer Strategy, effectively immediately.
• With more than 20 years’ experience in data analysis and aggregation, risk adjustment and health plan quality ratings, Nordtvedt brings deep expertise and understanding of the payer marketplace and the downstream processes that help to improve patient health.
• “By joining the talented leadership team at Recuro, I can participate in truly executing changes to the system and further my commitment to making healthcare a human right.
• It is an opportunity to bring about personalized and tailored services that are free of administrative burden and bias.”