(a) Appointment
Except as provided in subsection (b)(2), the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint the Director of the Institute.

(b) Term

(1) In general
The Director shall serve for a term of 6 years, beginning on the date of appointment of the Director.

(2) First Director
The President, without the advice and consent of the Senate, may appoint the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (as such office existed on the day before November 5, 2002) to serve as the first Director of the Institute.

(3) Subsequent Directors
The Board may make recommendations to the President with respect to the appointment of a Director under subsection (a), other than a Director appointed under paragraph (2).

(c) Pay
The Director shall receive the rate of basic pay for level II of the Executive Schedule.

(d) Qualifications
The Director shall be selected from individuals who are highly qualified authorities in the fields of scientifically valid research, statistics, or evaluation in education, as well as management within such areas, and have a demonstrated capacity for sustained productivity and leadership in these areas.

(e) Administration
The Director shall—

(1) administer, oversee, and coordinate the activities carried out under the Institute, including the activities of the National Education Centers; and

(2) coordinate and approve budgets and operating plans for each of the National Education Centers for submission to the Secretary.

(f) Duties
The duties of the Director shall include the following:

(1) To propose to the Board priorities for the Institute, in accordance with section 9515(a) of this title.

(2) To ensure the methodology applied in conducting research, development, evaluation, and statistical analysis is consistent with the standards for such activities under this subchapter.

(3) To coordinate education research and related activities carried out by the Institute with such research and activities carried out by other agencies within the Department and the Federal Government.

(4) To advise the Secretary on research, evaluation, and statistics activities relevant to the activities of the Department.

(5) To establish necessary procedures for technical and scientific peer review of the activities of the Institute, consistent with section 9516(b)(3) of this title.

(6) To ensure that all participants in research conducted or supported by the Institute are afforded their privacy rights and other relevant protections as research subjects, in accordance with section 9573 of this title, section 552a of title 5, and sections 1232g and 1232h of this title.

(7) To ensure that activities conducted or supported by the Institute are objective, secular, neutral, and nonideological and are free of partisan political influence and racial, cultural, gender, or regional bias.

(8) To undertake initiatives and programs to increase the participation of researchers and institutions that have been historically underutilized in Federal education research activities of the Institute, including historically Black colleges or universities or other institutions of higher education with large numbers of minority students.

(9) To coordinate with the Secretary to promote and provide for the coordination of research and development activities and technical assistance activities between the Institute and comprehensive centers.

(10) To solicit and consider the recommendations of education stakeholders, in order to ensure that there is broad and regular public and professional input from the educational field in the planning and carrying out of the Institute's activities.

(11) To coordinate the wide dissemination of information on scientifically valid research.

(12) To carry out and support other activities consistent with the priorities and mission of the Institute.

(g) Expert guidance and assistance
The Director may establish technical and scientific peer-review groups and scientific program advisory committees for research and evaluations that the Director determines are necessary to carry out the requirements of this subchapter. The Director shall appoint such personnel, except that officers and employees of the United States shall comprise no more than ¼ of the members of any such group or committee and shall not receive additional compensation for their service as members of such a group or committee. The Director shall ensure that reviewers are highly qualified and capable to appraise education research and development projects. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to a peer-review group or an advisory committee established under this subsection.

(h) Review
The Director may, when requested by other officers of the Department, and shall, when directed by the Secretary, review the products and publications of other offices of the Department to certify that evidence-based claims about those products and publications are scientifically valid.