The mission of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) is to advance and disseminate research on the causal effects of education interventions, practices, programs, and policies. As support for researchers who are focused on questions related to educational effectiveness, the Society aims to: 1) increase the capacity to design and conduct investigations that have a strong base for causal inference, 2) bring together people investigating cause-and-effect relations in education, and 3) promote the understanding and use of scientific evidence to improve education decisions and outcomes.

To accomplish this mission, SREE will sponsor activities and publish original research (e.g., a new peer-review journal and a three-volume handbook) focused on educational effectiveness. Research highlighted by SREE will, for example, include rigorously designed predictive studies of educational interventions (e.g., instructional interventions, policy implementations) and descriptive studies that model the distribution of education outcomes. Publications and activities sponsored by SREE will also bring into focus developments in research design, measurement, and data analysis/modeling needed to advance the field of education research.

The mission statement for the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE) was written by the Advisory Board during its initial meeting held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in May of 2005. The formation of SREE, and the crafting of a mission statement, were premised on the idea that the education community would be well served by a research organization that has a focused interest in cause-and-effect relations important for education. The mission statement represents the basic interests and goals of SREE, and will also guide the development of the society as it works to serve constituents interested in developing empirically credible answers to questions of educational effectiveness.

- SREE Advisory Board, May 24, 2005