Historically, the foundation of special education stems from the championing of parents, people with disabilities, invested policymakers, and other civil rights advocates within legal and policy forums. Yet, with the push for experimental and scientific research within special education, the focus on how those practices and positionalities are shaped by law and policy seemingly decreased within academic discourse. Through its National Center for Education Research (NCER), the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) supports research to build knowledge and understanding of education practice and policy. IES was established by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA – P.L. 107-279), in part to improve academic achievement and access to educational opportunities for all learners (ESRA, § 111.b.1.B), but also to focus especially on learners whose increased achievement would help close achievement gaps (ESRA, § 115.a.1) or who lack access to educational opportunities (ESRA, § 115.a.2.A and 115.a.2.B). As part of this mission, IES takes steps to ensure that our work is carried out in a manner that is objective, secular, neutral, and nonideological and free of partisan political influence and racial, cultural, gender, or regional bias (ESRA, § 111.b.2.B). NCER’s program of research is intended to: 1. Improve access to high-quality education for all learners from early childhood through adulthood, particularly learners least likely to have such access 2. Improve academic achievement for all learners from early childhood through adulthood, particularly those least likely to achieve academically 3. Reduce opportunity and achievement gaps between high-performing and low-performing learners 4. Improve access to, persistence in, progress through, and successful completion of postsecondary education