Sullivan will speak about education research that is leading to innovative practices and policies at every level of education, from kindergarten through higher education, making the case for a continuum of innovation. Link to session
What innovations can we as a community of research and practice apply to meet the Obama administration’s charge to increase higher education access and success, particularly among low-income, first-generation college-going students? This AERA presidential session will investigate this question and provide evidence on several creative and cost-effective strategies to support students to and through college. Presenters will discuss topics such as college financing and affordability, challenges students face in the transition from high school to college, and the academic needs of students once they arrive on their college campus. Further, they will provide insights and evidence on policy, programmatic and curricular innovations to contribute to increased postsecondary success. David Coleman, President of The College Board, will reflect on the role of the College Board, member school districts and universities, and policy partners in shaping the conversation and in taking innovative steps to improve student outcomes. Link to session
While much of the rhetoric of education reform focuses on what teachers and parents are or are not doing or on how different organizational models for schools (small schools, charter schools etc.), it can be argued that real reform in urban areas is more of a political question than a technical one. While we may get some gains in achievement with different models of schools or by changing how we train teachers, the vast funding disparities and demographic differences between urban schools and suburban schools are at the root of the problems politically isolated city schools face. Altering this landscape is a political issue. In light of this reality that much of education reform is a political problem, what role is there for researchers? How can research help to address a fundamentally political problem? What role can and should an organization like AERA play addressing the political reality of education reform? What do researchers need to do to successfully address education reform from this perspective? Link to session
All children have a right to a quality education, but many children in today's world are being denied that right. Education research can help address this challenge. More scientific research that provides facts about schools and educational systems is needed. More methodological rigor, a wide diversity of research sites, and powerful analytical tools are needed. And more research that provides insight into values, ethics, and questions of goodness and justice is needed. The session will explore multicultural diversity, the ethical implications of research methods, and the quality of education especially for those who have been denied that right. Diane Ravitch will speak about her research on some of the unanticipated consequences of educational innovations. Helen Gym will speak about what educational research means for the lives of school children in Philadelphia. Link to session
Increased efforts to hold teachers accountable for their performance via statistical estimates of their impact on student achievement and redesigned observation and evaluation systems have been among the most important education policy shifts of the last decade. Despite the controversy surrounding these systems and the fact that researchers and practitioners are only beginning to understand the changes—positive and negative—these systems are creating, we see continued expansion not only of the data-gathering and evaluation systems themselves but of the use of those systems to promote accountability in other domains, such as teacher preparation. The goal of this session is take stock of what we know about the impacts and challenges of data-intensive accountability systems in some key educational areas. Researchers and policymakers will discuss how these systems are affecting teachers, leaders, and schools; identify what is known and unknown in these areas; highlight what we can and cannot learn from teacher evaluation systems; and make recommendations for states and districts moving forward with such systems. Link to session
In 2002, the National Center for Education Research began. In 2003, NSF launched a Science of Learning Centers program. NCER aimed “to sponsor sustained research that will lead to the accumulation of knowledge and understanding of education”. The NSF Centers aimed to explore the cognitive and neural bases of learning to enable education to build on new discoveries. The aim of this symposium is to (a) reflect on the accomplishments of these initiatives, (b) consider prospects for a multidisciplinary science of learning and (c) explore the complex relationship between the science of learning and the education or learning sciences. Three of the participants represent 3 of the 6 Centers, and have participated in NCER projects as well, and a fourth participant gives a “user perspective” from an organization using research results to improve student success at scale. Link to session
Principal effectiveness and evaluation are emerging on the forefront of legislation and policy debates. Spawned by federal Race to the Top grants and the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) program authorized under Title I of the ESEA, state legislatures and districts are mandating that student growth and achievement must be part of principal performance evaluation. Major professional associations, such as the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) and major reform networks, such as New Leaders, have released blueprints for principal evaluation. These blueprints call for using multiple measures and various data sources, including measures of principal practice that rely on rubrics, surveys and observations from multiple stakeholders. However, the empirical research regarding the validity, feasibility and utility of these approaches is not well developed. Link to session
This session will discuss the role of research and evaluation in the innovation ecosystem of the education sector worldwide. Reflections will come from OECD and non-OECD countries, with some specific examples from India, the United Kingdom and the United States. The session will address the issue from the multiple perspectives of innovators, researchers, evaluators and policy makers, and highlight the different roles that research can play for innovation, taking into account differences in countries and institutional settings. Innovators will reflect on what researchers and evaluators have brought to their enterprise, while researchers and evaluators will discuss what they see as the contribution of their research to educational innovations. All these perspectives will be discussed from a policy perspective as well. The session will contribute to the field by framing the debate in comparison with other sectors than education, by showcasing interesting research or evaluation methods, and by broadening our thinking about the interplay between research, the design of educational innovation and the creation of the social conditions for its scalability. Link to session
The major US educational reform now gaining momentum and a range of attention is the design and implementation of new assessments intended to measure the Common Core State Standards. Many States are involved in two major groups, and others are using their own designs to create assessments. This symposium addresses key validity criteria involving both assessment features and inferences drawn from data, how they support high-quality assessments measuring complex thinking and applicable domain learning. The symposia will include researchers who will describe the criteria and research needed to assure their use, as well as reactions from those in the consortia, commercial testing, and the policy community. Link to session
A growing body of research clearly demonstrates that social-emotional (SEL) factors are vital to positive educational outcomes. The interdisciplinary nature of SEL research has led to significant advances in the field. Research conducted with students from ages 5 to 18 years old demonstrates that SEL programs can improve student motivation, classroom engagement, cooperation/collaboration, study habits, academic performance, and transitions into responsible adulthood. Moreover, SEL programs have been shown to decrease behaviors that hinder learning, such as negative school attitudes, absenteeism, truancy, and violence/aggression in schools. This session presents research from leaders in the fields of human development, counseling psychology, special education, and neuropsychology on the influence of social and emotional behaviors, cognitions, and well-being on student learning and achievement. Link to session
The population characteristics of the U.S. are changing dramatically; the majority origin population is expected to continue to decline while those from immigrant and minority backgrounds are expected to increase. This changing demographic is having a significant impact on U.S. society, especially in schools where questions regarding the quality of education immigrant students receive is of major concern. Research indicates that many immigrant children are failing to gain the skills and knowledge that will lead them to education advancement, economic security, civic engagement, and social and emotional well-being. Schools and communities have been chided as unresponsive to the needs of immigrant students. This panel discusses what the evidence tells us about the changes in our U.S. population and the implications it is likely to have for immigrant children, including: how schools should work with undocumented students; how to accommodate the needs of transnational children; and what should be the responses to policies hindering the educational futures of immigrant children. Link to session
Link to session
The Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assesses the extent to which 15-year-old students have acquired key knowledge and skills that are essential for full participation in modern societies. The assessment, which focuses on reading, mathematics, science and problem-solving, does not just ascertain whether students can reproduce what they have learned; it also examines how well they can extrapolate from what they have learned and apply that knowledge in unfamiliar settings, both in and outside of school. This approach reflects the fact that modern societies reward individuals not for what they know, but for what they can do with what they know. Andreas Schleicher, the Deputy Director for Education and Skills and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the OECD's Secretary-General will present the 2012 PISA results for 28 million 15 years olds in 65 participating countries. Link to session
The widespread adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and aligned assessments represent one of the most significant developments in education policy in the last two decades. While each state’s efforts to implement the CCSS are unique, there is a larger national agenda that supports deeper, more rigorous standards for all schools and aligned assessments to measure student achievement. As a result, much hope -- and possibly outsized expectations -- have been built upon the notion that the CCSS and new assessments have the ability to transform teaching and learning in a majority of U.S. schools. Researchers recognize that the CCSS and assessments represent a unique opportunity to study the many facets of major education reform. This research has the potential to not only support state and local efforts to effectively implement the CCSS, but also inform a wide range of policy and advocacy agendas. This session will explore how researchers, policymakers, and practitioners can work together to ensure that a range of implementation research is being conducted and used to inform both policy and practice. Link to session
Saturday, April 5, 12:25 pm to 2:25 pm Convention Center, Terrace Level - Terrace I Session hashtag: #AERAAwards Session will also be live-streamed Link to session
States and districts have launched unprecedented efforts in recent years to build new feedback and evaluation systems that support teacher growth and development. To that end, the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project set out to investigate how a set of measures could identify effective teaching fairly and reliably. This session highlights a selection of chapters from a new volume reporting original research using the MET data set. Link to session
This session will explore how adolescents globally are adopting to new social roles. Four papers will present empirical evidence on changing demands on young people making the transition to independent adulthood in different countries. The transition to independent adulthood is a major developmental task for young people who have to negotiate multiple role transitions, including the completion of full-time education, entry into paid employment, establishing a committed relationship, independent living and becoming a parent. How best to prepare young people for these challenges? What are the changes in demands and appropriate responses among young people? Moving beyond the assumption of homogeneous transition experiences (or a universal life stage of emerging adulthood) we explore diversity in transition experiences and different strategies in negotiating a successful transition to independent adulthood. Link to session
The forthcoming AERA Annual Meeting in Philadelphia takes place in a landmark anniversary year. It is the 60th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education and the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These two significant markers of social reform—one judicial and one legislative—were directed to ending segregation and discrimination and fostering a more equal society, in particular for persons of color. Looking back and looking ahead, what progress is observable, and, equally as important, what embedded social and social structural conditions continue to create barriers for attaining equal opportunity and access. This Presidential symposium brings scholars who have studied our social history, patterns of stability and change, and the mechanisms that impede or promote meaningful transformations in educational practice and policy. In the quest for a just society, no challenge has been more formidable or subject to study than the nature of societal change and the fault lines that can perpetuate inequality. Link to session
Educational research in urban settings constitutes a particularly important and complex body of work that includes research questions, methodological approaches, and conceptual frameworks that capture the critical issues facing these communities. Such research contributes to our understanding of how to bring about change, in educational outcomes and classroom practices, for both the students who are affected and the structures and systems of which they are a part. Panelists in the session will draw upon ongoing research in Philadelphia schools and communities to highlight the range of issues being addressed, approaches and conceptual frameworks being used, and possibilities that have emerged to support and improve learning, teaching, and schooling. Link to session
Scholars, practitioners, and policymakers from many disciplinary backgrounds and political persuasions point to the promise of preschool. Economists and developmental scientists, for example, highlight the ways in which early interventions cascade into numerous long-term payoffs, and identify positive benefit-to-cost ratios from classic preschool interventions. Educators recognize how reducing school readiness gaps can better position schools to teach all students, especially important in an era of accountability. In this session, several prominent scholars will share new research; and, a leading federal policymaker will discuss the findings’ relevance, including what they mean as the Obama administration proposes greater investments in state pre-k at the same time that states -- facing budget constraints -- are asking whether recent expansions have paid off. Link to session
Schools of education face three serious, interrelated challenges in preparing a future workforce for America’s P-12 student population. First, they are widely criticized for not preparing an appropriate supply of qualified teachers and leaders for today’s increasingly diverse P-12 student population and the college and career ready expectations for those students. Schools of education often ignore or undervalue the needs of school districts they serve, which aggravates this workforce problem. Second, preparation programs suffer from an uneven, in some cases weak, research base on effective practices for preparing school professionals. The wide variations in candidate characteristics, curricula, clinical experiences, entrance and exit requirements, and other features are not grounded in empirical evidence of candidate performance, particularly once they are in the classroom. Third, most current research models suffer from serious shortcomings. They have produced too little innovation, insufficient attention to which preparation program practices work in what circumstances, and are too slow to drive required transformations in preparation programs. New R & D/innovation models are needed to respond to the urgency and magnitude of the challenges facing university-based preparation programs. Link to session
While the economic value to college education has been establish, the learning value is contested. The Voluntary System of Accountability in the U.S., for example, seeks to report learning measures and value-added (VA) estimates for participating colleges, but most colleges do not provide this information. Presenters will address the policy context and assessment-system construction for VA estimation, conceptual issues in modeling VA, and statistical issues in VA estimation. Link to session
This session features social network analysis as it is used to study intra and inter school knowledge production and school leadership arrangements. Talks will 1) review findings concerning how educators are influenced by network members and how they select with whom to interact; 2) present research concerning networks of central office administrators as they engage research on district-wide reform; 3) describe efforts to develop tools intended to help states and districts identify the location of expertise relevant to curriculum, assessment, and professional development needed to implement Next Generation Science Standards; 4) present new directions in network analysis including two-mode network data (e.g., students and the courses they take), dynamic network processes and agent based simulations to study the emergence of network properties; and 5) discuss some fundamental epistemological and methodological challenges in using SNA to study knowledge production and school leadership and management. Link to session
In recent years there has been a flurry of activity regarding so-called “non-cognitive” factors affecting student success, referring to the non-IQ factors that cause learning and persistence. Broadly, interventions to increase self-regulation and to redirect student beliefs have had promising effects, in some cases causing lasting improvements for children across multiple domains of development. But what is truly known about these factors? How do their effects vary across contexts or age groups? And, perhaps more importantly, how can these insights from basic research be implemented in school settings to reliably improve student success? This session will present findings from some of the leading researchers on so-called non-cognitive factors affecting students, followed by a discussion of the implications of this research for school improvement and for broader theories of child development and student learning. Link to session
This interactive session demonstrates how five common building blocks of strategically targeted interventions and supports can help schools significantly improve the life chances of low-income children; surfaces the challenges of implementing policies and practices to support these building blocks; and provides participants with an opportunity to engage in facilitated discussion with others about the ideas presented. Increases in family income inequality have reduced opportunities for children from low-income families to obtain the skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing U.S. economy. Interventions in the domains of early childhood, elementary school, high schools, and family supports have proven effective in increasing the life chances of low-income children. In Restoring Opportunity, Murnane and Duncan describe the building blocks for making such interventions part of the life experiences of more low-income children. This session will feature videos from three of the schools highlighted in the book and remarks from leaders in those schools. Link to session
The Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) was established to provide competitive grants for innovative reforms to improve student achievement and attainment. Over 100 grants have been awarded since 2010, and a few especially large grants (up to $60 million each) have been dedicated to scaling up effective programs. This session will highlight four of these programs being brought to scale: the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), Teach for America, Reading Recovery, and Success for All. At various stages of research, the presenters will describe the scale up process, the research designs to establish effectiveness at scale, and findings regarding implementation and early effects on student outcomes. Link to session
These four symposium papers offer different lenses through which policy, practice and research can take into account ecological and cultural issues that are central to human learning and development. In addition, they offer innovative theoretical and methodological approaches to examining complex learning within and across settings in ways that take culture and identity as central. The papers also demonstrate interdisciplinary methods from epidemiology; mixed methods approaches to studying interplays among individuals and their contexts and to studying interplays among identity, perceptions, and learning; and critical multi-site ethnography for examining institutional, political, and social contradictions that youth, especially from non-dominant communities, must wrestle with as part of their life course development within and across settings. Link to session
Rapid expansion in the use of value-added measures for teacher accountability could potentially have far-reaching effects. While much has been written about the statistical properties of value-added measures, we know much less about their effects on teaching and learning. Three presentations will address a number of critical issues: What effects might value-added have on the teacher workforce? How are state and district leaders interpreting and using these methodologies for decision making? How are teachers making sense of the new evaluation systems, and how is it affecting the way they teach? The Symposium will provide initial insights into this dramatic experiment and the impacts on the key actors and components in the system. It will also help develop a future research agenda to explore the policies now being implemented across the country. The papers are part of a group of studies to be published in a special issue of Educational Researcher. Link to session
Despite the contraction of federal funds and the current involvement of very large foundations, private dollars comprise a relatively modest share of all funds spent on education research. How do foundation leaders view their opportunities to promote high-quality research? What do they see as their responsibilities to pursue a focused agenda, versus allowing research topics to emerge from the field? How have foundation activities changed in response to the shifting landscape of education research? This panel discussion will foster a dialogue between foundation leaders and education researchers. Four speakers will respond to guiding questions from the moderator, and audience members will be invited to comment and pose further questions. Link to session
Chair: Taylor Martin Discussant: Edward Dieterle Participants: John T. Behrens Ryan Baker Marie Bienkowski Bob Wise
To enable personalized, lifelong learning, we need education researchers capable of unlocking insights contained in the growing tsunami of student- and teacher- generated data associated with digital tools and environments. Creating a talent base of education researchers with deep analytical talent won’t happen overnight. It will require prioritizing resources, developing and sustaining a professional infrastructure, and creating new research tools capable of capturing, analyzing, and visualizing experiences continuing all through life. It will necessitate changes in teaching and learning practices and new policies that strike an appropriate balance between protecting privacy and drawing on large volumes of learning data to advance education outcomes. And it will require strengthening collaboration among the sectors of the education enterprise. In this session, experts from academy, industry, government, practice, and philanthropy will draw from their professional experiences to discuss the opportunities and challenges associated with learning analytics, providing worked examples and strategic priorities. Link to session