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The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) is a professional society for researchers who study the causal effects of education interventions, practices, programs and policies. This page explains where it came from, what it offers and where to find each part on its website, using SREE’s own pages and the U.S. Institute of Education Sciences (IES) award records. Facts were read on 2026-11-07.
What SREE is
SREE describes itself as dedicated to advancing research relevant to practice, from early childhood through post-secondary education (sree.org, read 2026-11-07). In the 2004 IES award record that proposed the organization, the stated mission was to advance and disseminate research on the causal effects of education interventions, practices, programs and policies (IES award record).
That focus places its work next to topics such as peer review and open science practice. For the wider discipline it belongs to, see what education research is as a field.
Origin and funding history
This is the part the society’s own utility pages (sign-in, registration, program) do not explain. IES award records show a sequence of unsolicited grants supporting the society’s creation and early operations:
- 2004 award: an IES award proposing a new scientific organization for the education sciences (Cornell; award period 04/01/2005 to 11/02/2007).
- 2008 award: “Continued Development of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE)” (award period 07/01/2008 to 12/31/2010; IES record), followed by a 2010 award, “Continued Support of SREE”.
- 2010: “Continued Support of SREE”, an unsolicited National Center for Education Research (NCER) award of $2,169,830 to Northwestern University, principal investigator Larry Hedges, award number R305U100002. The record lists an award period of 10/01/2010 to 01/31/2015 and says the grant would support core operations, much of it conference planning and logistics, while the society moved toward self-sufficiency (IES record).
The 2010 record states that SREE had almost 400 members at that time, a peer-reviewed journal and a history of well-attended conferences. It gives the founding purposes as increasing the field’s capacity to design and conduct rigorous investigations, creating a community of rigorous education researchers, and promoting the understanding and use of evidence in education decisions. The society’s home page does not state a founding date, so none is given here.
Who runs it and what it covers
SREE is a membership society. Its home page links to Leadership, Board Nominations, Bylaws and a Strategic Plan, and to an Institutional Member List. Its scope runs from early childhood through post-secondary education.
| Offering | What sree.org says (read 2026-11-07) |
|---|---|
| Annual conference | A 2026 program, registration and workshops, plus an Innovation Day; the next conference is listed as October 6-8, 2027, in Baltimore, Maryland. |
| Journal | The Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness (JREE), with author instructions, open science requirements and a call for editors for 2026-2028. |
| Affinity groups | Open Science, Women in Quantitative Methods, Researchers of Color, European Researchers. |
| Programs and awards | Summer Graduate Student Fellowship, Summer Fellows Research, Undergraduate Internship Funding, Early Career Awards. |
How to find things on sree.org
- Open sree.org; the member sign-in is the “LOG IN” link on the site.
- For the conference, use the annual-conference links for the program, registration, workshops and Innovation Day.
- For the journal, use the JREE links for author instructions and open science requirements.
- For membership, use the Membership section, which includes the Institutional Member List and the affinity groups.
- For governance, use the Leadership, Board Nominations, Bylaws and Strategic Plan links.
- For student and early-career opportunities, use the fellowship, internship and Early Career Awards links.
Strengths and limits
- Strength: a clear methodological focus (causal effects of education interventions) and a defined set of activities: a conference, a journal, fellowships and affinity groups.
- Strength: a public paper trail. Early funding and purpose are documented in IES award records that anyone can read.
- Limit: it is a society for researchers, not a data repository or a database; it does not replace a literature index or an evidence clearinghouse.
- Limit: sign-in and registration pages are for members and attendees, so a visitor sees the public program and information pages.
Alternatives and related resources
Which body fits depends on the task, and this page does not rank societies. To place SREE in context, start with the overview of education research as a field, and for how scholarly journals vet work, see peer review. SREE’s Open Science affinity group and the JREE open science requirements connect to open science.
Frequently asked questions
What does SREE stand for?
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness.
What is the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness?
It is the society’s journal. The 2010 IES record calls it a peer-reviewed journal, and sree.org lists its author instructions and open science requirements.
When is the next SREE conference?
sree.org lists the next conference as October 6-8, 2027, in Baltimore, Maryland (checked 2026-11-07). Dates can change, so confirm on the conference page.
Who funded SREE’s early years?
IES award records show unsolicited grants in 2004 (the founding proposal, running 2005 to 2007), 2008 and 2010, the last one for $2,169,830.
Sources
- Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, read 2026-11-07.
- IES: Continued Support of SREE, read 2026-11-07.
- IES: proposal for a new scientific organization (2004), read 2026-11-07.
