Our Mission

The rapid accumulation of student achievement data represents an untapped national resource, one that holds the promise of breaking longstanding stalemates in the education policy debate. The Project for Policy Innovation in Education works with University-based researchers and policymakers to bring these new data to bear in evaluating policies and drawing implications for reform. To ensure that the research is solving real problems, the Project engages stakeholders in the field directly to frame the research. The Project is intended to serve as a focal point for education policy research across the University and is working to develop a campus-wide effort in education policy research. As a national convener with alumni in leadership positions in districts around the country, the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard University are uniquely placed to play this national leadership role.

PPIE forms partnerships with states and districts in order to learn the lessons that the newly available data have yet to reveal. In doing so we will:

• Assemble teams of leading policy analysts and social scientists to work with school data.
• Create new venues in which practitioners, policymakers, and researchers can regularly interact.
• Develop mechanisms for ensuring that researchers can be held accountable for their findings, without compromising privacy.
• Cultivate a new generation of scholars focused on policy impact.