AERA Awards 11 Education Research Service Projects Grants


March 2016

Eleven projects have been selected to receive awards through AERA’s Education Research Service Projects (ERSP) initiative. The ERSP program is designed to encourage education researchers to offer their pro bono expertise to educational organizations, institutions, or other community groups that have identified and expressed a need for such assistance. The selected awardees receive small grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to defray direct costs involved in these projects.

“Now in its fourth year, the ERSP program enables education researchers to respond to deep and significant needs at educational entities, both nationally and internationally,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Many of these educational entities might not otherwise have access to this expertise. By generously sharing their time and their research expertise, this year’s awardees exemplify the spirit of service that is central to the ERSP program.”

ERSP awardees in 2016 will address a broad selection of research topics, including youth nutrition and health education, teacher retention and attrition, kindergarten readiness, and inclusion and achievement for students with disabilities, among others. Funded projects range from program evaluation to youth-led ethnographic research, and include both qualitative and quantitative projects.

With this year’s awards, a total of 42 projects have now been funded through the ERSP initiative. In 2013, the inaugural call for proposals resulted in the selection of 12 projects to receive awards; nine projects were funded in 2014; and an additional ten awards were made in 2015. The ERSP Selection Committee, a subcommittee of AERA Council, chose the following eleven projects to receive awards in 2016:

Brief abstracts of all ERSP projects funded from 2013 to present are available on the AERA website. Results and findings of these ERSP projects will continue to be disseminated at the AERA Annual Meeting and through the AERA website.

The call for proposals for the next ERSP submission and review cycle will come out later this year, with a December 2016 deadline.