News in Brief: A Washington Roundup

Secretary of Education Rod Paige has vowed to ask college and university presidents to elevate the lowly status of education research on their campuses.

"Education research must be the highest calling in our universities," Mr. Paige told researchers attending the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, held April 1-5 in New Orleans.

Mr. Paige's remarks were aimed in part at drumming up support from the group for the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which makes "scientifically based research" a key principle. The Washington-based group represents around 23,000 researchers worldwide, and some of them believe the new law defines education research too narrowly. Among the researchers' fears is that, for a field that they say has historically suffered from inadequate federal funding and a lack of prestige, the bar may be...