§ 7981 — Evaluations

(a) (b) and (e), the Secretary, in consultation with the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, may reserve not more than 0.5 percent of the amount appropriated for each program authorized under this chapter to carry out activities under this section. If the Secretary elects to make a reservation under this subsection, the reserved amounts— (1) shall first be used by the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, to— (A) conduct comprehensive, high-quality evaluations of the programs that— (i) are consistent with the evaluation plan under subsection (d); and (ii) primarily include impact evaluations that use experimental or quasi-experimental designs, where practicable and appropriate, and other rigorous methodologies that permit the strongest possible causal inferences; (B) conduct studies of the effectiveness of the programs and the administrative impact of the programs on schools and local educational agencies; and (C) widely disseminate evaluation findings under this section related to programs authorized under this chapter— (i) in a timely fashion; (ii) in forms that are understandable, easily accessible, usable, and adaptable for use in the improvement of educational practice; (iii) through electronic transfer and other means, such as posting, as available, to the websites of State educational agencies, local educational agencies, the Institute of Education Sciences, or the Department, or in another relevant place; and (iv) in a manner that promotes the utilization of such findings; and (2) may be used by the Secretary, acting through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences— (A) to evaluate the aggregate short- and long-term effects and cost efficiencies across— (i) Federal programs assisted or authorized under this chapter; and (ii) related Federal early childhood education programs, preschool programs, elementary school programs, and secondary school programs, under any other Federal law; (B) to increase the usefulness of the evaluations conducted under this section by improving the quality, timeliness, efficiency, and use of information relating to performance to promote continuous improvement of programs assisted or authorized under this chapter; and (C) to assist recipients of grants under such programs in collecting and analyzing data and other activities related to conducting high-quality evaluations under paragraph (1). (b) The Secretary, acting through the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, shall use funds authorized under section 6302(e) of this title to carry out evaluation activities under this section related to subchapter I, and shall not reserve any other money from such subchapter for evaluation. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section or section 6302(e) of this title, the Secretary, in consultation with the Director of the Institute of Education Sciences— (1) may consolidate the funds reserved under subsections (a) and (b) for purposes of carrying out the activities under subsection (a)(1); and (2) shall not be required to evaluate under subsection (a)(1) each program authorized under this chapter each year. (d) The Director of the Institute of Education Sciences, shall, on a biennial basis, develop, submit to Congress, and make publicly available an evaluation plan, that— (1) describes the specific activities that will be carried out under subsection (a) for the 2-year period applicable to the plan, and the timelines of such activities; (2) contains the results of the activities carried out under subsection (a) for the most recent 2-year period; and (3) describes how programs authorized under this chapter will be regularly evaluated. (e) If, under any other provision of this chapter, funds are authorized to be reserved or used for evaluation activities with respect to a program, the Secretary may not reserve additional funds under this section for the evaluation of that program.