A precedent for national validation of best education proactices for postsecondary education existed for several decades in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) now succeeded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). Within OERI was the Program Effectiveness Panel (PEP). PEP reviewed educational practices submitted by educators. An example of one of these applications is provided through the following: https://www.casas.org/home/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.downloadFile&mapID=1362

Through a rigorous evaluation process some practices were "validated." These validated practices were disseminated to the education community. OERI's National Diffusion Network (NDN) provided grants to a selected number of PEP certified programs for national dissemination. Due to budget cuts, both PEP and NDN were eliminated in the 1990s.