The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has selected a group of research organizations to build and maintain an $18.5 million database, called the What Works Clearinghouse, that will help education decision-makers identify high-quality research on various programs, practices, and products used in teaching.

The five-year contract was awarded to the Campbell Collaboration of Philadelphia and the American Institutes for Research of Washington, D.C., along with their subcontractors, Aspen Systems of Rockville, Md., Caliber Associates of Fairfax, Va., and the Education Quality Institute of Washington, D.C.

The two principal parties have established a joint venture to develop and maintain the clearinghouse. The partnership brings together nationally recognized leaders in the field of education research.

The clearinghouse aims to help fulfill a requirement of the new education reform law, No Child Left Behind (NCLB), that asks educators to use only proven strategies based on sound, scientific research.

"There's a lot of pressure through the U.S. Department of Education, and there's a lot of public interest in identifying programs that actually do what they claim to do," said Rebecca Herman, project director for the clearinghouse and principal research analyst at the American Institutes for Research.

The clearinghouse will contain several searchable online databases, including a registry of programs, products, and practices that claim to improve student achievement; a registry of research that backs up those claims; a registry of effective assessment tools; and a list of researchers that educators can contact if they have a program they need evaluated.

The term "high-quality research" has not yet been defined. Project leaders say they are working to identify the characteristics of high-quality research to create a standard or benchmark against which each piece of research contained in the clearinghouse will be measured.

"The idea is to help people sort out good evidence from evidence that isn't really that strong," Herman said.

Together, these five organizations will write critical reviews of existing education research on various topics—such as the impact of homogenous grouping in the third grade. The project leaders plan to solicit topic nominations from educators, Herman said.

For each piece of research, the clearinghouse will provide a summary, access to the complete document where possible, and a review that identifies the research's strengths and weaknesses.

"It's a matter of linking up the question that decision makers have with the best research out there," said Marty Orland, principal program officer and special assistant to ED's assistant for research and improvement.