What Works Clearinghouse
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) was established in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in response to the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Law (2001) that schools using federal funds to adopt educational interventions provide scientifically-based evidence of their validity and applicability.
WWC is administered by the USED through a contract to a joint venture of the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and the Campbell Collaboration to provide educators, policymakers, researchers, and the public with a central and trusted source of scientific evidence of what works in education
The What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) gathers studies of the effectiveness of educational interventions (programs, products, practices, and policies), reviews the studies that have the strongest design, and reports on the strengths and weaknesses of those studies against the WWC Standards to inform educators what the best scientific evidence has to say.
The first set of WWC standards, called the Design and Implementation Assessment Device (DIAD), provides a standardized method for evaluating the validity of causal claims in individual studies. It uses a rigorous, systematic, and open research method to determine the degree to which an intervention or approach has an impact on or affects education outcomes.
After a study has been reviewed using the WWC Standards, evidence reports are generated by researchers with a background in conducting and evaluating causal inference studies. The WWC Technical Advisory Group (TAG) of nationally respected scientists provides objective and independent review of the WWC Standards and Evidence Reports.
Links
What Works Clearinghouse (WWC): http://www.w-w-c.org
U.S. Department of Education (USED): http://www.ed.gov
Institute of Education Sciences (IES): http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html?exp=0 The Institute of Education Sciences reflects the intent of the President and Congress to advance the field of education research, making it more rigorous in support of evidence-based education. The Institute consists of the National Center for Education Research, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. On November 22, 2002, Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst was appointed to a six-year term as the first Director of the Institute.
American Institutes for Research (AIR): http://www.air.org American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a not-for-profit corporation of more than 850 professionals who perform basic and applied research, provide technical support, and conduct analyses based on methods of the behavioral and social sciences. Its program areas focus on education, health, individual and organizational performance, and quality of life.
Campbell Collaboration (C2): http://www.campbellcollaboration.org/index.html The Campbell Collaborative is an international non-profit organization that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about the effects of interventions in psychological, behavioral, and educational arena. Its objectives are to prepare, maintain, and disseminate systematic reviews