The Power of a Penny: Building Knowledge to Invest in What Works in Education

Ask any group of teachers, principals, or school superintendents, what would help them provide high quality education to their students, and invariably they will say: better information about what works.

Enormous amounts of time, money, and effort are spent on designing, authorizing, and regulating federal spending on education with very limited guidance on what actually works, under what circumstances, and for which students.

Yet, the federal government spends less than one-tenth of a penny, out of every dollar invested in education programs, to evaluate those programs.

According to a new report by Bloomberg Philanthropies partner, Results for America, by shifting just 1% of federal education funds to review what aspect of education programs have an impact – education funding could be much better informed and driven by evidence of what actually works.

By investing just a penny on the dollar, the Department of Education can build a rigorous system of program evaluation that will improve education outcomes for all.