February 2017

Arrive in Time for Opening Plenary and AERA Fiesta

AERA President Vivian L. Gadsden has announced that Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot and Rubén Rumbaut will give the two major distinguished lectures at the 2017 Annual Meeting. The meeting—scheduled for April 27–May 1 in San Antonio, TX—is the single-largest gathering of scholars in the education research field and is a showcase for groundbreaking, innovative studies in a diverse array of areas, from early education through higher education.

Lawrence-Lightfoot will give the AERA Distinguished Lecture. She is Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of education. Lawrence-Lightfoot’s work examines the culture of schools, the broad ecology of education, and the relationship between human development and social change. She has written 10 books, including The Good High School: Portraits of Character and Culture, which received the 1984 Outstanding Book Award from AERA.

Rumbaut, Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine, will give the Wallace Foundation Distinguished Lecture. Rumbaut, a leading expert on immigration and refugee resettlement in the United States, has testified before the U.S. Congress at hearings on comprehensive immigration reform, served as expert witness in federal court trials challenging local ordinances that targeted undocumented migrants, and lectured around the world on immigration issues.

Additional information about these and other noteworthy symposia, forums, and town hall meetings will be featured in the weeks ahead in Highlights, the online program, and on the AERA website.

More than 14,000 attendees are expected at the 2017 Annual Meeting, including nearly 10,000 presenters. The meeting’s theme is “Knowledge to Action—Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity.”

The Annual Meeting kicks up on Thursday, April 27, with the Opening Plenary, from 6:30 pm to 8 p.m. The session will immediately be followed by the AERA Fiesta, featuring, music, food, and refreshments. The start of the Annual Meeting coincides with San Antonio’s annual Fiesta, April 20–30, which is one of the nation’s premier festivals. 

The Annual Meeting will include more than 2,500 sessions—including major addresses and lectures; "presidential" sessions featuring panel discussions and speakers on key issues; research and science policy-oriented sessions; and research paper presentations.