Research Bill Clears House Without Fuss

By Debra Viadero

Washington

After a three-year gestation, a proposal to replace the Department of Education's main research office with a more independent "Academy of Education Sciences" sailed through the House last week.

But the measure as written could be stillborn in the Senate, where education leaders are planning to start from scratch in crafting their own bill for reauthorizing the department's oft-criticized office of educational research and improvement.

If approved by the full Congress, however, the House-passed measure would wipe out the existing federal research office and replace it with an academy headed by a director working in tandem with a national advisory board. The bill also proposes standards governing the scientific quality of department-sponsored education research and calls for loosening federal hiring restrictions that make it difficult for the agency...