The Institute of Educational Sciences (ISE) is a public organisation, founded in 1990. The Institute of Educational Sciences is a public research institute financed by the Ministry of National Education at the level of basic funding, while research contracts with national and international donors covers an important part of its expenditures. The ISE has 40 professionals and 20 support staff, around a half of the research staff holding a doctoral title.
As a national institute for research and development in education, ISE aims to put forth the educational policies and decisions by the scientific studies and data, to analyse needs and existing challenges in the Romanian educational system. Many members of the research staff are also textbook authors for pre-university level. Some researchers are also members of the academic staff involved in the initial teacher training for History, Languages, Sciences and Educational Sciences and at the tertiary level (graduate and MA courses for the Departments for Initial Teacher Training).
As a result, the ISE is able to provide the project with the full array of expertise, starting from the initial teacher training to issues of curriculum development and implementation, from the analysis of classroom experiences to perceptions of stakeholders on the educational process and its outcomes.
ISE also provides support and expertise for practical activities of students from Educational Sciences and Political Sciences faculties. Similarly, it shows a strong programme and project evaluation expertise, being involved in the State of Education Report of the LLL Programme in Romania evaluation and conducting impact assessment studies (i.e. Rural Education Project).