U.S. Department of Education Fiscal Years 2022-2026 Strategic Plan

The U.S. Department of Education recently released a strategic plan for Fiscal Years 2022-2026. In this plan they outline six areas of research to strengthen the nation’s education system:

Focus Area 1: Address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, educators, and faculty.

Focus Area 2: Promote equity in student access to educational resources, opportunities, and inclusive environments.

Focus Area 3: Support a diverse and talented educator workforce and professional growth to strengthen student learning.

Focus Area 4: Meet students’ social, emotional, and academic needs.

Focus Area 5: Increase postsecondary value by focusing on equity-conscious strategies to address affordability, completion, post-enrollment success, and support for inclusive institutions.

Focus Area 6: Effectively manage federal student aid programs.

These areas have been selected with the needs of every student in mind, especially as it concerns the effects of COVID-19 on education. Within each of these areas, there are anticipated problems, largely including the availability of data and the effects of COVID-19 on evidence building activities. The Department of Education is focused on “ the development of novel evidence-based strategies, adaptations of those strategies in response to emerging evidence of promise, and the application of successively more rigorous evidence building techniques to evaluate the capacity to improve student outcomes” (p. 91). We suggest considering the Department’s strategic plan when writing future proposals. You may access the full plan here.