Researchers, Under Congressional Glare, Trumpet Progress

By Debra Viadero

Chicago

At a time when federal lawmakers are shining a harsh spotlight on educational research, a group of leading researchers gathered here recently to celebrate some of the field's successes over the past 30 years.

"Judging from what we've heard here, we can say that knowledge does accumulate in education, and some of us were worried about that," said Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, the president of the Spencer Foundation, which hosted the Jan. 24-25 meeting here. The Chicago-based foundation is the only major philanthropy that concentrates solely on nurturing education research across a wide range of disciplines. It also underwrites coverage of education research topics in Education Week.

Last month's conference had two purposes: to commemorate the organization's 30th birthday and to provide some of the intellectual underpinnings for the foundation as it plans a more targeted approach to underwriting...