Nearly 100 congressional staff, federal agency employees, and members of the research community attended AERA’s congressional briefing on its recently released report LGBTQ Issues in Education, on July 9. Nearly 300 people from the United States and at least seven other countries—Canada, Mexico, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ireland, and Japan—viewed the livestream of the briefing.
AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine moderated the briefing. In her introductory remarks, she stated, “The knowledge synthesized in our report and also shared at this briefing provides the kind of backbone that will advance further scientific inquiry and enable policy based on evidence-based understandings.”
Three scholars and authors of the report drilled down to explain their findings in specific areas. George L. Wimberly, AERA Director of Professional Development and editor of the report, discussed the overall state of the research and current research challenges.
Lindsey Wilkinson, Associate Professor of Sociology at Portland State University, talked about his research surrounding educational attainment in K–12 schools for LGBTQ students using large-scale data sets. Dorothy L. Espelage, Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Illinois, reviewed research on bullying that occurs on the basis of sexual or gender identity.
Wimberly closed the presentations with recommendations for further research. These include examining student experiences before high school, race and social class distinctions and intersections, and how education affects the career and life outcomes of LGBTQ students.
The presentations were followed by a lively Q&A, which covered how current and new education research on LGBTQ issues can inform policy and practice.
The archived webcast and PowerPoint presentations may be viewed on the AERA website.
In addition, three fact sheets were developed for the briefing: