The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is conducting a research and training program with joint support from the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Education Statistics. The purpose of the program is to foster policy and practice relevant research in the general area of math and science education using the rich data bases available at NCES. The Program has four components: (1) a fellows program; (2) a small grants competition to stimulate policy and practice relevant research using NCES math and science data sets; (3) a series of training opportunities for educational researchers in the use of NCES data sets, especially those related to math and science; and (4) an internship program in NCES for advanced graduate students. The fellows program will facilitate collaboration and consultation among academic scholars and NCES scientists in their endeavors to improve the quality of education indicators. The small grants competition, the training program, and the graduate internships will foster more systemic and sustained analyses of math and science education data and also help build the educational research infrastructure and increase the number of scholars conducting policy and practice-related research with NCES' data sets. The training program, the fellows program, the graduate internship program, and the small grants competition will be administered by AERA and guided by an Advisory Board composed of prominent scholars.
