Report Card Time for Research Arm of Education Dept.

The Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the Department of Education, is the latest department program to get an “effective” rating from the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Over the past four years, the OMB has reviewed more than 1,000 federal programs, categorizing them as “effective,” “moderately effective,” “adequate,” “ineffective,” or “results not demonstrated.” The results are published on a Web site, at www.expectmore.gov .

So far, only 18 percent of the programs reviewed across the federal government have gotten the coveted “effective” rating. At the Education Department, where the OMB has so far evaluated 92 programs, only four...