Early Career Mentorships are available for those finishing a graduate program in June 2011 or who are in the first three years following their graduate programs. The mentorship pairs the young professional with an experienced person in an applied field related to Division H’s purpose – Research, Evaluation and Assessment in Schools. As the intent of the mentorships is to support the transition from academia to an applied setting, applications should emphasize the applied nature of the mentor’s experience. Support in finding a mentor is available if needed.
The Division H sponsorship helps pay for a three to five day visit to the mentor’s workplace to learn about the challenges and rewards of the work. During the visit, the mentees will be able to see how their graduate studies relate to the everyday work of applied research, evaluation and assessment. Most importantly, they will establish contacts and relationships with experienced people in the field who can provide ongoing support after the initial visit.
Details
- The mentorship pays up to $750 toward the expense of your visit. - All mentorship visits must be completed by the end of October 2011. - Mentees will be expected to summarize their experience in an article for the Division H newsletter. - There are a maximum of four mentorships available. - Mentees must be members of Division H. - Application must be submitted by May 6, 2011.
Here are the testimonies from the previous year’s awardees.
Burcu Kaniskan, Ph.D. candidate, Neag School of Education University of Connecticut
“I cannot fully describe the numerous experiences I gained throughout this program. At the same time, I cannot emphasize enough how much effort Dr. Marion took to ensure that I was exposed to a one-week experience full of events which broadened fundamentally my knowledge of concepts, theories and problems. I am very confident to say that his fabulous mentoring gave me the opportunity to learn of the things not found in any textbook or graduate classes. I have no doubt that this experience will impact my future career.”
Mentor: Scott Marion, Ph.D. National Center for Assessment and Learning Dover, New Hampshire
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Kim Schildkamp, Ph.D. Assistant Professor University of Twente, Netherlands
“I was very fortunate that Lorna Earl was able to take me to all these different levels of the educational system, and that I could talk to these people, who all were very willing to share their experiences with me. I have learned some valuable lessons, and gained some important new insights. Lorna showed me what data-driven decision making looks like in practice. . . .I am fortunate enough that this journey with Lorna does not end with the end of this trip. During the trip Lorna, one of her PhD students, Saad Chahine, and I developed exciting new research ideas around an international comparative data-driven decision making study. The focus will be on how to support teachers in the use of data. We are also working on a prospectus for an edited book with papers on data-driven decision making from different countries.”
Mentor: Lorna Earl, Ph.D. Aporia Consulting Ltd. and Associate Professor (Ret.)at OISE, University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario ______________________________________________________
Lorna Earl, Ph.D. Aporia Consulting Ltd. and Associate Professor (Ret.)at OISE, University of Toronto Toronto, Ontario
“I actually applied for the mentorship program two years in a row. I thought I was graduating and had to delay my plans for another year little did I know the career blessing that decision that delay would open. One such blessing was the opportunity to apply again for the AERA 2008 Division H Early Career Mentoring Program. Another unique opportunity that was key in my application, selection, acceptance, and participation in the program was the use of the AERA Division H breakfast to meet the division leaders and learn more about the wide variety of careers in this field. I was introduced to the U.S. Department of Education Director of School and Student Accountability Office. The Director and I had a chance to communicate at the breakfast and agreed that he would mentor me and support my application for the early career program. It was a wonderful experience I not only learned a lot and was exposed to some top officials at the Department of Education but I also got a unique opportunity to gain some as needed employment, learn about how to apply for federal jobs, and all the encouragement and resources to start a research agenda for e tenure-track faculty position. I could go on and on but in summary my advice would be three fold: 1) don’t miss the AERA Division H annual breakfast, 2) network at the breakfast, and 3) take the opportunity to volunteer and get involved with Division H”
Mentor: Zollie Stevenson, Ph.D. Director, Student Achievement and School Accountability Programs US Department of Education ______________________________________________________
Liza Kasmara, Ed.M Teachers College Columbia University
"At the end of my 4 day visit to MCPS Program Evaluation Unit office, I felt that everything I learned in graduate school made a lot more sense. I learned how important it is to conduct a systematic evaluation study while allowing for some flexibility to respond to the unpredictable. I was able to see how the theories were applied in real world, how to deal with ethical issues, sometimes even political complexities, while keeping the study comprehensive and the methodologies rigorous."
Mentor: Shahpar Modarresi, Ph.D. Supervisor of Program Evaluation Unit Office of Shared Accountability Montgomery County Public Schools, Rockville, Maryland
Bo Yan, Ph.D. Program Evaluator Blue Valley Schools Overland Park, KS
"Two years ago, I came to my school district hoping to make a difference in the real world with all the knowledge and research methods I had learned in graduate school. As I understood it back then, my job was simply to transform data into knowledge that district and school administrators could use to facilitate decision making and teachers could rely on to guide their instruction in the classroom. However, reality is always more complex and messier than theory, and the job turned out to be much more challenging and complicated than I had conceived. This motivated me to learn from seasoned researchers in local school settings how to do the “simple” job well. I was fortunate to receive the AERA Division H Early Career Mentoring Travel Stipend Award and have Dr. Steve Henry as my mentor.
Mentor: Stephen Henry, Ph.D., General Director of Research and Evaluation, Topeka Public Schools, Topeka, KS.