May 2014 Message from the VP
May 2014 Message from the VP
 
Message from Division VP
Print
May 2014

Hello Division H Members:
 
Whew!  The Spring semester at many of our universities has ended...and Summer School is about to begin.  In my neighborhood the high "schoolers" are attending their proms and getting ready to graduate from high school.  High School testing has just ended in Maryland and the testing offices are working with school and central office staff to edit header sheets and package the exams for scoring.  These are some of the "Rites of Spring!"
 
On Wednesday, May 21 the Division G Vice President and I had our virtual Vice Presidential orientation session for about two hours with AERA President Joyce King and AERA Executive Director Felice Levine.  It went well I think.  I want to publicly thank our immediate past VP Judy Arter for doing such a wonderful job during my year as the VP-elect.  As a result, most of what was shared I already knew because Judy kept me in the loop on nearly EVERYTHING!  I did indicate my interest in working with Felice and her staff to improve the professional development offerings for our practitioners and academics.  We will soon get the Professional Development Committee engaged around our training and development needs...
 
I also want to acknowledge and thank Judy for two roles in which she is (and will be serving).  Judy and Matt Lavery, our Web Master and Committee Chair (and Senior Graduate Student Committee representative) on updating our website.  If you go to the website today, you will see my first Blast posted and a photo that was taken by Junior Rep Oral Grant while we were in Philadelphia.  More importantly, Judy has taken the time to dissect the website and has identified a number of items that need to be updated and/or removed from the site.  She and Matt have agreed to work on making those changes. 
 
Judy has the responsibility for orchestrating the work of the Nominations Committee.  This is the year that we will nominate candidates for Division H Secretary.  The deadline for nominations is near the end of the Summer.  Think about whether YOU might be interested in serving in the Division Secretary position for two years.  More details are forthcoming.
 
Glynn Ligon, Paul LeMahieu and I have had one conversation regarding the strategic planning process.  They are putting together a communication that will be share with us soon.  Strategic planning committee volunteers...stay tuned...there will be much to do as the planning process is developed, refined and implemented.
 
Our 2015 Program Committee is:  
Susan Nyambura Maina, Chair and Brett D. Campbell, Assistant Chair - bdcampbell@interact.ccsd.net (will be Chair for 2016). 

Section Chairs are:
Section 1: Applied Research in Schools
Kecia Addison

Kecia_L_Addison@mcpsmd.org

Section 2: Program Evaluation in Schools

Teresa Duncan

tduncan@icfi.com

Section 3: Assessment in Schools

Debra Hinderliter Ortloff
debora.ortloff@gmail.com

Section 4: Accountability in Schools

Dale Whittington

whittington_d@Shaker-Heights.k12.oh.us

Immediate Past Chair:

Rosanne Brown

rosanne.brown@peelsb.com

 
Susan Nyambura Maina, our 2015 Program Chair will be traveling to the AERA Program Committee meeting next week.  The Program Committee Division and SIG reps will be working on Presidential Sessions for the 2015 meeting that focus on the theme:  "Toward Justice: Culture, Language, and Heritage in Education Research and Praxis."  If you have any thoughts about possible sessions that connect with our work and focus in Division H, please share with Nyambura in the next couple of days.  She has shared several excellent ideas that make the connection between the annual meeting program theme and our focus but is interested in hearing your suggestions (susan_n_maina@mcpsmd.org). 
 
I am going to end the Blast here.  If you have receipts that Division H committed to reimburse, please get them and a reimbursement form to me by June 15.  I will use that date as the cutoff for reimbursements for matters related to AERA 2014.  In the upcoming Blast's I will share information about our committee chairs and co-chairs and information regarding their plans for 2014-15.  There are quite a few announcements listed below regarding calls for proposals and papers and even the opportunity to pioneer a new SIG.  Please read and consider the opportunities that each offer.
 
I will be disconnected (except through email) for the next week as I travel to Asia to present a paper at a conference.
 
Please have a safe Memorial Day long weekend.  Let us remember with appreciation those who have served this country in peace and war.
 
Go well
 
Zollie

Want to be a founding member of an AERA community dedicated to improvement science?

“Every system,” Dr. Paul Batalden observed, “is perfectly designed to get exactly the results it gets.” Increasingly, teachers, schools, and districts are being asked to improve their practices to achieve better outcomes. And yet, to the extent evidence-based practices have been identified, little is known about how to systematically incorporate and adapt these practices to improve educational systems. The R&D enterprise with its emphasis on attributional research is not as helpful at generating knowledge about improvement.  What we have is an enterprise that warrants that something can happen . . . but provides little knowledge about how to make it happen  --  certainly not across diverse contexts. 

 

“Improvement science” is the label for the body of knowledge about how systems can learn to improve, and it includes many practical tools, processes, and routines that have had limited exposure and testing within the field of education. Batalden and colleagues pioneered the application of improvement science to health care systems. The goal of the Improvement Science Significant Interest Group (SIG) is to bring together a community of researchers and practitioners committed to building on and adapting this knowledge to improve education systems.

 

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is coordinating a proposal to form a new SIG on Improvement Science, which requires 75 signatures from current AERA members. If you would like to join the new Improvement Science SIG once it is formed and are willing to sign the petition, please share your name and email address through the link below. You will receive an email notification as soon as a live petition is available for signing:

 

http://form.jotformpro.com/form/41344871095962

 

Call for Proposals - Northeastern Educational Research Association

Dear Educational Researchers,

This message is to remind you that the proposal submission system for the 2014 Northeastern Educational Research Association Annual Conference is now open.

Once again, you can submit proposals for individual paper presentations, individual paper roundtable presentations, individual posters, and theme-based paper sessions/symposia at the link below. This link can also be used to submit proposals for the Special P-12 Teacher Researcher Call:
http://www.viethconsulting.com/members/proposals/propselect.php?orgcode=NERA&prid=407827

The proposal system will be open through 11:59 PM (EDT) on Friday, June 6, 2014. Decisions will be sent to first authors in mid-August.

The Call for Proposals describes how to submit proposals and can be found at: 
http://www.nera-education.org/docs/NERA_2014_Call_for_Proposals.pdf.

We encourage you to distribute submission information as well as the Call for Proposals to your colleagues.

If you have any further questions, please contact us at: NERAconference@nera-education.org<file:>. We look forward to seeing everyone at NERA in October.

Thank You,

Pamela Kaliski, College Board
Ross Markle, Educational Testing Service Javarro Russell, Educational Testing Service NERA 2014 Conference Co-chairs

Follow us on Twitter! @NERAconference
"Like" NERA on Facebook! NERA - Northeastern Educational Research Association Network with NERA members using our Linkedin group page!</file:>

Call for Conference Proposals – Mid-Western Educational Research Association

The deadline for proposals for the MWERA November conference in Evanston, Illinois has been extended to June 1, 2014. The proposal submission system is available at:
http://convention2.allacademic.com/one/mwera/mwera14/

Proposals for papers, poster sessions, symposiums, workshops, alternative sessions, best practices forums, research in progress, and panel presentations are all welcome.  Eligible papers will be considered for publication in MWERA's quarterly journal, and one paper will be chosen to represent MWERA's research and scholarship at the spring 2015 AERA conference in Chicago. Additional details are available in the call which can be found at:
http://www.mwera.org/program-information.html

If you have any further questions, please contact T. Mark Beasley at mwera2014@gmail.com

Please feel free to share this information with colleagues.

Announcing a Special Double Issue for the Journal of Education for Students Placed At Risk (JESPAR)

There is growing attention to cultivating collaboration between educational practitioners, researchers, evaluators, and policy analysts. Previously, the goals and incentives to mutually conduct research in the K-12 school were seen as divergent; recently, school district leaders and researchers are beginning to realize the mutual benefits in a shared agenda to plan and conduct research. 

JESPAR's special double issue is seeking research manuscripts by practitioners and researchers aligning their interests to work collaboratively on conducting research to assist the at-risk population in k-12 school districts. These school district partnerships may be with higher education institutions, consortia, educational labs, research organizations, and/or others. Aside from reporting the research focused on the at-risk population studied, authors are requested to incorporate discussions on the nature of the collaborative. This may include the methods used to cultivate these partnerships and reach mutual agreement on the research agenda, the perspectives on the relevance and importance of the partnership, or other facets perceived to be insightful for the reader interested in initiating a partnership or enhancing an existing partnership.

Papers should be a maximum of 8000 words including references. All papers will be subject to review. Neither acceptance nor place in the special edition can be guaranteed.

Abstracts (150 words) and manuscripts submitted to guest editor, Mary E. Yakimowski (yakimowski@aol.com):  July 15, 2014 Feedback/Confirmations sent back to authors: September 10, 2014 Final papers submitted to guest editor: November 1, 2014 Final copy to publishers: January 2015 Publication date: Spring 2015

CREATE CONFERENCE PROPOSALS DUE

This is a friendly reminder CREATE presentation proposals are due NEXT FRIDAY MAY 30, 2014 BY MIDNIGHT. The CREATE (Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness) Conference 2014 will take place in Williamsburg, Virginia at The College of William and Mary from October 2-4, 2014. The conference theme is "A Summit on Assessing Student Learning: The Impact of State, National, and International Accountability." We have an exciting line-up of international speakers to include Yong Zhao and our 2014 Millman Award winner Susan Brookhart.  To access the Call for Proposals, please use the following link: www.createconference.org/proposals.html .

Sincerely,

John  Fischetti, CREATE President and Leslie Grant, 2014 Conference Chair