WELCOME
Felice J. Levine
AERA Executive Director
Na’ilah Suad Nasir
AERA President, The Spencer Foundation
REFLECTIONS AND REMARKS
Edmund W. Gordon
AERA Honorary President, Teachers College, Columbia University
IN MEMORIAM
PRESENTATION OF AWARDS
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Outstanding Book Award
Kabria Baumgartner
Reviw of Research Award
Adam J. Alvarez
Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award
Julie A. Edmunds
Fatih Unlu
Jane Furey
Elizabeth J. Glennie
Nina P. Arshavsky
Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award
Bianca J. Baldridge
Scholars of Color Mid-Career Contribution Award
Megan Bang
Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award
Zeus Leonardo
Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity In Education Research Award
Elizabeth Jackson Meyer
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Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award
Okhee Lee
Social Justice In Education Award
Sharon L. Fries-Britt
E. F. Lindquist Award
Henry I. Braun
Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award
Daniel Willingham
Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Early Career Award
Huriya Jabbar
Distinguished Public Service Award
Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott
Distinguished Contributions To Research In Education Award
Carol D. Lee
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ABOUT THE AWARD WINNERS
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Outstanding Book Award
Kabria Baumgartner
Northeastern University
Kabria Baumgartner. (2020). In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America. NYU Press.
The 2021 Outstanding Book Award goes to Dr. Kabria Baumgartner for her book, In Pursuit of Knowledge: Black Women and Educational Activism in Antebellum America. Dr. Baumgartner provides a powerful analysis of black women's "purposeful" educational activism in antebellum America. Typically, historical accounts of desegregation and civil rights in education are situated in the South and often explore the role of established organizations and legal and political machinations that engendered an expansion of rights for African Americans. In this book, Baumgartner uncovers an origin story of sorts that begins with the struggles of African American women and girls who understood that education was one necessary element in their quest for freedom and self-determination. By centering the courage and wisdom of African American girls and women and by weaving all these stories together, Dr. Baumgartner challenges past narratives and paints a fuller picture of the long, continuing struggle for equal education in the United States.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Dorothy L. Espelage (Chair), Sebnem Cilesiz, Susan E. Eaton, Edward Fergus, Sharon Nelson-Barber, David M. Osher, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Erica Walker, Vincent DeWayne Willis
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Review of Research Award
Adam J. Alvarez
Rowan University
Adam J. Alvarez. (2020). Seeing Race in the Research on Youth Trauma and Education: A Critical Review. Review of Educational Research, 90(5), 583-626.
The recipient of the 2021 Review of Research Award is Dr. Adam J. Alvarez, for his article “Seeing Race in the Research on Youth Trauma and Education: A Critical Review,” in the October 2020 issue of Review of Educational Research. This article brings a much-needed racialization lens to research and theory about trauma and education. Dr. Alvarez expertly weaves together scholarship from a variety of disciplinary perspectives to shed light on the role of structural racism in student experiences of and responses to trauma, as well as educators’ assessments of those responses and the interventions researchers design. The committee was deeply compelled by the potential of this review to advance discourse, research, and practice in education. By centering a need for race-consciousness on the part of both educators and the researchers, Dr. Alvarez reframes trauma away from implicitly deficit-based narratives. He positions it instead as a racial equity issue and a matter of institutional responsibility, providing concrete recommendations and reflections for the education research community.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Julie Renee Posselt (Chair), Brian Robert Beabout, Jarvis Ray Givens, Jennifer Jellison Holme, Sakhavat Mammadov, Heather T. Rowan-Kenyon, Blake Silver
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Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award
Julie A. Edmunds, SERVE Center, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Fatih Unlu, RAND Corporation
Jane Furey, University of Michigan
Elizabeth J. Glennie, RTI International
Nina P. Arshavsky, SERVE Center, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Julie A. Edmunds, Fatih Unlu, Jane Furey, Elizabeth J. Glennie, & Nina P. Arshavsky. (2020). What Happens When You Combine High School and College? The Impact of the Early College Model on Postsecondary Performance and Completion. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 42(2), 257-278.
The 2021 Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award goes to Julie A. Edmunds, Fatih Unlu, Jane Furey, Elizabeth J. Glennie, and Nina P. Arshavsky, for their article, "What Happens When You Combine High School and College? The Impact of the Early College Model on Postsecondary Performance and Completion," published in the June 2020 issue of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Early college programs enable students to graduate in six years with both a high school diploma and an associate degree or two years of college credit. In this outstanding study, the authors investigate the longer-term outcomes for graduates who continue on to college. Using a rigorous, lottery-based experimental design, they find that students not only complete college in less time than peers who follow a traditional path through high school and college, but also do so while achieving comparable grade point averages. The committee admired the article’s clear findings and nuanced discussion, which have far-reaching implications for education policymakers and administrators.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Susan Moore Johnson (Chair), George W. Bohrnstedt, Nicholas A. Bowman, Xinyin Chen, Hunter Gehlbach, Eric A. Hanushek, Nicholas Hillman, Andrew Ho, Bridget Terry Long, Jeff MacSwan, Lindsey Malcom-Piqueux, Abul Pitre, Jennifer Randall, John R. Snarey
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Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award
Bianca J. Baldridge
Harvard University
Dr. Bianca J. Baldridge is honored with the 2021 Scholars of Color Early Career Contribution Award for her ground-breaking scholarship on community-based educational spaces in communities of color. Through this scholarship, Dr. Baldridge has centered and highlighted often invisible voices, such as youth community workers, in academic discourse. Her scholarship grounds these voices in critiques of power and racial capitalism, thereby advancing knowledge about critical intersections of oppressive social systems and some of the most pressing issues in U.S. society and beyond.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Samuel D. Museus (Chair), Mary E. Dilworth, Sherick A. Hughes, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Mariana Souto-Manning, Monika Williams Shealey
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Scholars of Color Mid-Career Contribution Award
Megan Bang
The Spencer Foundation, Northwestern University
Dr. Megan Bang is recognized with the 2021 Scholars of Color Mid-Career Contribution Award for her unique and powerful contributions to indigenous education. Her scholarship is innovative, integrating indigenous knowledge systems with learning sciences. While Dr. Bang has had a prolific career, her approach to advocating through her research distinguishes her scholarship from the larger field. She integrates her commitment to underserved communities into the research process by foregrounding relationships and community throughout, and she utilizes her research to advocate for federal and state policies that acknowledge and center some of the most critical social and political issues that impact both indigenous and non-indigenous populations.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Samuel D. Museus (Chair), Mary E. Dilworth, Sherick A. Hughes, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Mariana Souto-Manning, Monika Williams Shealey
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Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award
Zeus Leonardo
University of California, Berkeley
Dr. Zeus Leonardo is the 2021 recipient of the Scholars of Color Distinguished Career Contribution Award. This award is a reflection of his prolific career. Dr. Leonardo is one of the leading scholars on issues of race and education and utilizes critical theory to produce cutting-edge analysis of social issues in education. He is perhaps best known for his work in critical whiteness studies, and he has produced scholarship that has had a profound impact on current understandings of the deeply embedded biases at the core of knowledge in the education field. As such, his work is instrumental in understanding how scholars can shift conversations to be more equitable.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Samuel D. Museus (Chair), Mary E. Dilworth, Sherick A. Hughes, Marc P. Johnston-Guerrero, Mariana Souto-Manning, Monika Williams Shealey
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Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity In Education Research Award
Elizabeth Jackson Meyer
University of Colorado, Boulder
The recipient of the 2021 Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research Award is Dr. Elizabeth Jackson Meyer. Dr. Meyer has been a pathbreaker throughout her career. Her research focuses on gender and sexual diversity in schools, an intellectual agenda begun at a time when few scholars ventured into these topics. Dr. Meyer created a conceptual framework, gendered harassment, that forms the foundation of research, policy, and practice designed to improve educational environments for LGBTQ youth. Her research on Gay-Straight Alliances, teachers of transgender and gender creative youth, and legal protections and case law form a foundation for the field. Dr. Meyer has set the highest example for scholarly accomplishment in the study of gender in education.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Kristen A. Renn (Chair), Edward Brockenbrough, Venus E. Evans-Winters, Joanne C. Larson, Ana M. Martínez-Alemán, Ellen L. Usher
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Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award
Okhee Lee
New York University
The 2021 Exemplary Contributions to Practice-Engaged Research Award goes to Dr. Okhee Lee. The selection committee was deeply impressed with Dr. Lee’s application of a research program that has effectively transformed elementary science education with bi-/multi-lingual students. Dr. Lee’s proposition that science learning and language learning mutually support each other by nurturing students to use their full range of meaning-making resources can be observed through Dr. Lee’s tireless work generating applicable classroom-level research that leads to effective practices. Dr. Lee’s fifth-grade science curriculum, Science and Integrated Language (SAIL), enhanced with the addition of a computational thinking model, is being tested by school teachers across the state of New Jersey. Dr. Lee’s research has broad reach and powerful implications for education practice.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Rich Milner (Chair), Nolan L. Cabrera, Kahele Dukelow, Simona Goldin, Camille M. Wilson
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Social Justice In Education Award
Sharon L. Fries-Britt
University of Maryland
The recipient of the 2021 Social Justice in Education Award is Dr. Sharon L. Fries-Britt. Her pioneering work on high achieving Black students has influenced the leadership and practice of social justice across many campuses in the United States. She has also been lauded by her colleagues for her courage and resilience in her ability to influence leaders in systemic systems of power and privilege. Moreover, Dr. Fries-Britt has been recognized as one of the leading voices on equity and inclusion in the sciences. Her scholarship brilliantly engages multiple constituencies from government agencies, to foundations, and to national organizations in advancing social justice by addressing some of higher education’s most challenging problems. Among these are building capacity for diversity, equity and inclusion, increasing success for students and faculty of color, and improving campus racial climate.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Michelle G. Knight-Manuel (Chair), Jamel K. Donnor, Francesca A. Lopez, George L. Wimberly
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E.F. Lindquist Award
Henry I. Braun
Boston College
Dr. Henry I. Braun is the 2021 recipient of the E. F. Lindquist Award. Dr. Braun is internationally known for his influential contributions to empirical, theoretical, and integrative research in statistics, measurement, and public policy. His research on the interpretability of test scores and indicators, value-added modeling, international large-scale assessments, and the impact of testing and test use on equity has advanced measurement and testing practices. In recognition of his formidable scholarship, he was elected to the National Academy of Education, and was the recipient of the Robert L. Linn Memorial Lecture Award by AERA’s Division D in 2018.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Suzanne Lane (Chair), Laura M. Desimone, Dianne Henderson, Krista D. Mattern, Scott L. Thomas
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Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award
Daniel Willingham
University of Virginia
The recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award is Dr. Daniel Willingham. The award committee voted unanimously to give this award to Dr. Willingham based on his significant and extensive contributions to our understanding of cognition as it applies to K-12 education through a variety of media and public venues.
AWARD COMMITTEE: William F. Tate (Chair), Ty-Ron M.O. Douglas, Kris D. Gutiérrez, Valerie Kinloch, Mark R. Warren
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Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award
Nikole Hannah-Jones
Howard University
The recipient of the 2021 Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award is Nikole Hannah-Jones. The selection committee for the award reviewed the work of many education reporters and found that Ms. Hannah-Jones stood out for her careful reading of and reporting on the educational research that informs the issues she is writing about, from issues of racial segregation to the inter-generational impact of systemic racism on Black communities and their schools. At the core of her work is a penetrating examination of the research in education, the social sciences, and history that enables her to produce evidence-based journalism that re-writes long-held narratives about issues of race and education in the U.S. As a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, a staff writer at the New York Times Magazine, and the creator of the 1619 Project, Ms. Hannah-Jones has spent her career investigating racial inequality and injustice, and her reporting has earned her the MacArthur Fellowship, a Peabody Award, two George Polk Awards, and the National Magazine Award three times.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Amy Stuart Wells (Chair), Dorinda Carter Andrews, Angela Calabrese Barton, Jerlando F.L. Jackson, Lawrence Torry Winn
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Early Career Award
Huriya Jabbar
The University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Huriya Jabbar is the 2021 recipient of the Early Career Award. Dr. Jabbar is a prolific scholar employing rigorous and creative methodological approaches to studying some of the most pressing education policy issues of our time and engaging both the research and policy communities with her work. Her scholarship has significantly contributed to our understanding of how school leaders navigated charter schools, including their perceptions of competitors, their strategies for gaining a competitive advantage, and how the charter market is both stratified and tiered; and how the social structure of the teacher labor market depends on the overall concentration of charter schools in a region.
AWARD COMMITTEE: James P. Spillane (Chair), Carol Camp Yeakey, Christopher Emdin, Uma Madhure Jayakumar, Carmen I. Mercado
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Distinguished Public Service Award
The Honorable Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, U.S. Representative, 3rd Congressional District of Virginia
Congressman Robert C. "Bobby" Scott is the 2021 recipient of the Distinguished Public Service Award. Congressman Scott was first elected to Congress from Virginia’s third congressional district in 1993, and was the first African-American elected to Congress from Virginia since Reconstruction. Both in his current role as the Chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor and as the ranking member of the Committee on Education and the Workforce from 2015 to 2018, he has worked tirelessly to advance an agenda of educational equity. He was a primary co-author of the Every Student Succeeds Act in which he sought to improve upon many aspects of the preceding No Child Left Behind Act. Congressman Scott also championed the recent overhauls of the career and technical education system and the nation’s juvenile justice structure. A long-time friend of educational research, he has always listened to evidence and sought to understand the true impact of changes to policy beyond the posturing and politics typical in government.
AWARD COMMITTEE: Sean "Jack" P. Buckley (Chair), Sandra L Baxter, Kara S. Finnigan, Jennifer K. Rice, Jenna Sablan, Deborah Stipek
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Distinguished Contributions To Research In Education Award
Carol D. Lee
Northwestern University
The Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award is the premier acknowledgment of outstanding achievement and success in education research. Its purpose is to publicize, motivate, encourage, and suggest models for education research at its best. The 2021 Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award goes to Dr. Carol D. Lee. Dr. Lee is president-elect of the National Academy of Education, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She is an AERA Fellow, Past President and Vice President, and a Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences Fellow. Dr. Lee’s ground-breaking work in cultural modeling is the standard for understanding and leveraging the rich linguistic and sociocultural repertoires of African American youth. Her research has unabashedly interrupted deficit discourses and practices that have pathologized minoritized youth, and she has inspired a generation of multi-disciplinary scholars to deliberately foreground culture, race and social contexts in the education of children of color.
AWARD COMMITTEE: A. Lin Goodwin (Chair), Alfredo J. Artiles, Prudence L. Carter, Robert A. Fecho, Elizabeth Birr Moje, Leigh Patel
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