Input on the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Redesign
In October 2025, Renaissance Philanthropy provided input to the Trump administration in response to a Request for Information on redesigning the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).
To create a more innovative and effective IES, we recommend 1) embracing DARPA-inspired coordinated research, 2) modernizing the peer review process, 3) establishing a rotator program to bring in technical experts 4), doubling down on programs that support scaling, 5) deploying novel funding mechanisms, and 6) enabling and encouraging public-private partnerships.
Read our full comments below.
October 14, 2025
Amber Northern
Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202
Dear Dr. Northern,
On behalf of Renaissance Philanthropy, thank you for the opportunity to weigh in on the redesign of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). As the nation’s premier source for independent education data and research, IES is a valuable institution that serves families, educators, researchers, policymakers, and the general public. While its core functions must be preserved, Renaissance Philanthropy appreciates the chance to share ideas for a modernized, more innovative and effective IES.
Launched in 2024, Renaissance Philanthropy surfaces breakthrough ideas and incubates ambitious initiatives to fuel a 21st century renaissance in science and technology. Through our AI and Education Program, we connect ideas, talent, and funding to drive innovation in learning. Our key initiatives include the global Learning Engineering Tools Competition and the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute (LEVI), which widen educational opportunities by leveraging multi-sector collaborations and advances in computer and learning sciences.
To create a newly reimagined IES that serves students and the public, Renaissance Philanthropy recommends the following:
Embrace DARPA-inspired coordinated research to spark breakthrough innovations. Advanced Research Projects Agencies (ARPAs) like DARPA are structured to facilitate “imagine if…” R&D rather than incremental research. While federally funded ARPAs represent almost every sector (e.g., defense, health, transportation, intelligence, agriculture), education has been an exception. As a result, the U.S. is missing out on technical breakthroughs that could transform teaching and learning.
Renaissance Philanthropy’s LEVI program supports moonshot R&D in education, and it’s seeing impressive results after only a few years. For instance, students using LEVI-supported PLUS Tutors and the ALTER-Math approach are significantly outperforming their middle school peers in math. This type of ambitious, cutting-edge R&D should be embraced not just by the philanthropic community, but also by the federal government.
To take a more ARPA-like approach to R&D in the short term, IES should expand its new Accelerate, Transform, and Scale (ATS) Initiative, which invests in cutting-edge R&D projects led by interdisciplinary teams, seeking to solve the most intractable challenges in U.S. education.
Longer term, if approved by Congress through legislation such as the New Essential Education Discoveries (NEED) Act, IES should establish a National Center for Advanced Development in Education (NCADE). Like the ATS initiative, the NCADE would fund moonshot R&D projects led by interdisciplinary teams. A reimagined IES could build on this promising effort by:
Attracting top talent to serve as program managers. The brightest minds would serve three- to six-year terms at IES and have the autonomy to design and manage research portfolios solving real-world problems. Program managers would be empowered to define the research agenda, make funding decisions, and terminate or adjust projects if milestones are not met.
Applying the Heilmeier Catechism, rather than its standard peer review process, to assess potential research projects. The Heilmeier Catechism is a standard set of practical questions (e.g., If you are successful, what difference will it make?) used by ARPAs and innovative research organizations around the globe. It calls for straightforward, jargon-free answers and ensures risks are considered on the front end.
Funding short-term, performance-based contracts rather than fixed, multi-year grants. The contracts would have milestones at which the project must deliver meaningful results; and if it cannot, the project would be adjusted or terminated. This improves the efficiency of federal funds, and allows for adaptability to changing research needs.
Modernize the peer review process to make it faster and more responsive to community needs. IES’s peer review panels largely consist of researchers, which arguably contributes to the selection of more traditional, academic research projects. IES could broaden its aperture by welcoming non-academic perspectives to its review panels—individuals such as educators, product developers, and AI experts. These more diverse panels should review proposals not only for their scientific and technical merits, but also their likely impact in classrooms and other learning environments. Finally, review panels should not be limited to an annual cycle. Instead, reviews should be held more frequently, or in some cases, on a rolling basis, to fund projects in a way that keeps pace with the rapidly changing educational and technological landscape.
Establish a rotator program to bring in technical experts, especially in AI. To remain relevant amidst rapid changes, IES must also ensure it has the talent needed to respond to modern-day challenges. Today, that includes staff who are skilled in AI and other emerging technologies. In the future, a different set of skills that cannot yet be anticipated will be needed. That’s why IES would benefit from a rotator program, like the one at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which allows talented individuals with specific scientific or technical skills to contribute their talents to the agency for one- to four-year terms. IES can use a mechanism like the Intergovernmental Personnel Act (IPA) to bring in staff as rotators.
Double down on programs that support scaling to bridge the lab-to-classroom gap. IES funds important applied research, but the results of this research will not have a widespread impact on U.S. classrooms without intentional efforts to support scaling and commercialization. IES’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants play a critical role in translating research into impact. According to a 2025 analysis, IES SBIR-funded educational products have been used by 131 million students, educators, and administrators, equating to only 70 cents of federal funding per user. Every dollar of IES SBIR funding has led to nine dollars in sales, investments, and acquisitions. Given its high ROI, IES SBIR should be expanded to more effectively bridge the gap between the rigorous research IES funds and the impact it can have on everyday teaching and learning.
Another scaling effort worth sustaining is the new From Seedlings to Scale (S2S) grants program, part of the ATS Initiative. S2S offers three phases of increasing funding to transform bold ideas within a focus area into scalable solutions. ARPA-like in its approach, S2S seeks to solve real-world problems and acts a good steward of taxpayer dollars by setting milestones and only continuing to fund the projects demonstrating meaningful and measurable impacts.
Deploy novel funding mechanisms to make high-ROI investments and use taxpayer dollars prudently. IES typically funds R&D through multi-year fixed grants. Through the redesign process, IES has an opportunity to start using a range of innovative funding mechanisms to enhance accountability for results and spark ideas from unexpected sources of talent. As the founder and organizer of the Tools Competition, Renaissance Philanthropy has seen how effectively prize challenges and competitions attract a wide range of innovators to solve real-world problems, at a relatively low cost. IES experimented in this approach with its Digital Learning Challenge XPRIZE; it should build on this effort and sponsor more challenges more regularly and signal its openness to new ideas and problem solvers. To further enhance the cost-effectiveness of its investments, IES should deploy flexible mechanisms like contracts, cooperative agreements, and Other Transactions Authority.
Enable and encourage public-private partnerships to make each federal dollar go further. It should look to partner where possible, such as a philanthropic collaboration with NSF that expanded K-12 STEM education R&D infrastructure. A reimagined IES should embrace public-private partnerships, with industry, philanthropy, and local governments, to attract outside expertise and dollars—ultimately amplifying the impact of IES investments.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our ideas and expertise as you set the vision for a modernized, innovation-forward IES.
Sincerely,
Kumar Garg
President, Renaissance Philanthropy
