ARPA-ED aims to optimize technology use in education

By Jolie Lee
Federal News Radio

Students of the future might have a digital tutor to give personalized instruction. Or they might follow a curriculum that suggests classes and learning methods based on student data. Think Amazon.com for the classroom.

A new innovation program at the Department of Education could make all of this possible.

The Advanced Research Projects Agency for Education (ARPA-ED) would fund projects by industry and universities that advance learning and teaching. The program is getting a $90 million investment in the president’s fiscal year 2012 budget.

Currently, only 0.2 percent of education funding goes toward research and development, according to a report by Education.

“There’s just not enough innovation going on right now in education,” said Jefferson Pestronk, special assistant in the White House Office of Innovation and Improvement.

ARPA-ED would hire program managers who are experts in the field. The program would run competitions, similar to other innovation programs in government now, most notably DARPA – the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The program would focus on three- to five-year projects with “the potential for transformative impact,” according to Education.

In fact, ARPA-ED will draw from the best practices of DARPA and even expand on a digital tutor project launched in the Navy for IT training, Pestronk said.

“We’re curious whether those results could be extended to algebra or other core academic areas,” he said.

ARPA-ED’s obvious aim is to improve the status quo of student achievement, but the program also has a goal to produce results that can be scaled throughout the country, Pestronk said.

“Requiring every school to reinvent things to address problems that are shared doesn’t seem like the best approach,” he said.

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