---
kind: "section"
citation: "20 U.S.C. § 9531"
title: "20"
title_heading: "Education"
number: "9531"
heading: "Establishment"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/20/9531"
units:
  - "Chapter 76 — Education Research, Statistics, Evaluation, Information, and Dissemination"
  - "Subchapter I — Education Sciences Reform"
  - "Part B — National Center for Education Research"
---

# §9531. Establishment

- (a) **Establishment—** There is established in the [Institute](/usc/20/9501.md?p=14) a National Center for Education Research (in this part referred to as the “Research Center”).
- (b) **Mission—** The mission of the Research Center is—
  - (1) to sponsor sustained research that will lead to the accumulation of knowledge and understanding of education, to—
    - (A) ensure that all children have access to a high-quality education;
    - (B) improve student academic achievement, including through the use of educational technology;
    - (C) close the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students through the improvement of teaching and learning of reading, writing, mathematics, science, and other academic subjects; and
    - (D) improve access to, and opportunity for, postsecondary education;
  - (2) to support the synthesis and, as appropriate, the integration of education research;
  - (3) to promote quality and integrity through the use of accepted practices of scientific inquiry to obtain knowledge and understanding of the validity of education theories, practices, or conditions; and
  - (4) to promote [scientifically valid research](/usc/20/9501.md?p=20) findings that can provide the basis for improving academic instruction and lifelong learning.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 107–279, title I, § 131, Nov. 5, 2002, 116 Stat. 1954.)