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The Research and Science Policy Forum focuses on important areas at the intersection of education research and science policy. All times are in Mountain Time. This schedule is preliminary. Check back for updates and additional information on forthcoming sessions.
The Revision of the AERA-APA-NCME Testing Standards: Focus on Foundations and Operations of Measurement and Psychometrics Thursday, April 24, 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chairs: Ye Tong (National Board of Medical Examiners), Andres De Los Reyes (University of Maryland) Faciliators: Kristen L. Huff (Curriculum Associates), Michael C. Rodriguez (University of Minnesota), Fred Oswald (Rice University)
This is the first of two joint sessions that will update the memberships of AERA and NCME and provide an opportunity for input on the Standards. Specifically, this session will address the Foundations and Operations sections of the Standards, with a focus on validity, reliability, and precision, as well as test development, scaling, administration, and documentation. The Joint Committee (JC) received its charge on August 21, 2024, has been meeting with experts, and is working on the Standards revision. In this first session, participants will receive an update on the process and hear from members of the JC regarding their work and any current challenges being addressed by the committee regarding measurement foundations and operations. The majority of the session is intended to hear from participants about their thoughts on the ongoing revision, in reaction to the updates or regarding their own questions, hopes, or concerns for the revision.
Enhancing the Preparation of Researchers for Transformative Research Thursday, April 24, 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 4EF (R)
Chair: Na'ilah Suad Nasir (Spencer Foundation) Participants: Pamela A. Moss (University of Michigan), Louis M. Gomez (University of California - Los Angeles), Megan Bang (Northwestern University), William R. Penuel (University of Colorado - Boulder), Andrew Ho (Harvard University) Respondents: Dáaiyah Bilal-Threats (National Education Association), Kimberly Griffin (University of Maryland)
In spring 2023, the Spencer Foundation convened a Task Force on the Preparation for Transformative Research, to explore new possibilities for how we might, as a field, better prepare early career scholars to engage transformative research. The session centers around a set of key recommendations from the report. The report considered 1) the commitment and capabilities researchers need to engage in transformative research; 2) how graduate training and other professional learning opportunities could be more intentional about preparing researchers for transformative research, and 3) how the field might evolve its research infrastructure to better support these efforts.
Wading Through the Water: Navigating Sociopolitical Constraints While Engaged in Education Research. Co-Sponsored with AERA Science and Policy Series Thursday, April 24, 3:35 pm to 5:05 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Meeting Room Level - Room 103
Chairs: Terrell R Morton (University of Illinois at Chicago), Anne-Marie Nunez (University of Texas - El Paso) Panelists: Cheryl E. Matias (University of San Diego), Luis Ponjuan (Texas A&M University), Jamie Lewis Keith (EducationCounsel), Jude Higdon (QSIDE), Amy Reid (PEN America), Ashley Finley (AAC&U)
This moderated panel session features scholars and representatives from organizations dedicated to ensuring the rights and protections of academic researchers. Each presenter will share information relevant to navigating various legal, social, and cultural challenges that may arise when faced with public opposition to social science research and praxis that seeks to address educational disparities. Insights into experiences with legal processes and sociocultural practices will be shared. These insights include defining and understanding concepts such as FOIA, social media harassment, targeting, and the possibilities and limitations of IRB as it pertains to criticisms of said research. Additionally, these insights include strategies for identifying national and local resources that can be leveraged to navigate said critiques.
A New Vision for High Quality Preschool Curriculum – A Report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Thursday, April 24, 3:35 pm to 5:05 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chair: Barbara Rogoff (University of California - Santa Cruz) Participants: Douglas H. Clements (University of Denver), Lillian Durán (University of Oregon) Commentators: Nicole Patton-Terry (Florida State University), Jennifer Keys Adair (University of Texas at Austin)
The 2024 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, A New Vision for High-Quality Preschool Curriculum, examines preschool curriculum quality for children from ages three to five, with special attention to the needs of Black and Latine children, multilingual learners, children with disabilities and children experiencing poverty in the United States. The report articulates a vision for high-quality preschool curricula for all children, grounded in equity and justice-oriented principles from inception to implementation and evaluation. This session will feature an overview of the report and recommendations from members of the committee that produced the consensus study, as well as discussion on future research directions based on the recommendations provided in the report.
K-12 STEM Education and Workforce Development in Rural Areas – A Report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Thursday, April 24, 5:25 pm to 6:55 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chair: Devon G. Brenner (Mississippi State University) Participants: Beth Cady (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), Guan Saw (Claremont Graduate University), Darris Roshawn Means (Clemson University) Commentators: Catherine P. Bradshaw (University of Virginia), Amy Price Azano (Virginia Tech)
The 2024 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, K-12 STEM Education and Workforce Development in Rural Areas, includes a stock-taking of existing federal programs that support rural STEM education and workforce development, and recommendations for federal, state, and local action to improve STEM education and workforce development in rural areas. The National Academies was directed to undertake a consensus study through the CHIPS+Science Act to take stock of existing federal programs that support rural STEM education and workforce development and to develop recommendations for federal, state, and local action to improve it. This session will feature an overview of the report and recommendations from members of the committee that produced the consensus study, as well as discussion on future research directions based on the recommendations provided in the report.
Remedy and Repair in Educational Research for Queer and Trans People Friday, April 25, 9:50 am to 11:20 am The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chair: Jessica Nina Lester (Indiana University) Participants: Stephanie Anne Shelton (University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill), Kamden Strunk (Virginia Commonwealth University), Mario I Suárez (Utah State University), Leonard D. Taylor (Indiana University)
There have been significant increases in legislative and policy-based efforts to harm queer and trans people, particularly in educational contexts (Schey & Shelton, 2023; Strunk et al., 2024), with ever-growing numbers of anti-LGBTQ+ legislative bills filed and passed into law in the United States and globally (ACLU, 2024). Currently, there are more than 520 of these bills being considered across the U.S.’s legislative sessions–more than in any previous year. Never has research working to include, support, and affirm queer and trans communities been more important (Suárez, 2023), and when educational research responsibly and knowledgeably engages with LGBTQ+ topics, scholarship has profound potential to challenge, block, and even rewrite harmful policies and legislation–while offering new possibilities and sources of hope for queer and trans people (Schey & Shelton, 2023; Strunk et al., 2024). However, despite the potential and promise of educational research offering meaningful remedy and repair in the face of dehumanizing sociopolitical attacks, there is a longstanding and persistent history within the field of many scholarly efforts instead–and often unintentionally–erasing and/or harming queer and trans people (Keenan & Suárez, 2022; Meyer, 2022; Strunk & Hoover, 2019). Current methodological approaches, for example, often conflate sex and gender, confuse sexuality with gender identity and gender expression, use cisheteropatriarchal terminology, and rely heavily on binaries to discuss LGBTQ+ topics.
How to Communicate Education Research in Challenging Times Friday, April 25, 9:50 am to 11:20 am The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Chair: Tony Pals (American Educational Research Association) Participants: Jill Barshay (The Hechinger Report), Eric Gorski (Chalkbeat), Kevin Mahnken (The 74)
This session will bring together three veteran education journalists to discuss how education researchers can share their newsworthy scholarship and inform news coverage of important education/higher education issues, especially during challenging times for academe and the country. There will be an opportunity for attendees to ask questions and briefly share about their potentially newsworthy work.
Scaling and Sustaining Pre-K-12 STEM Education Innovations: Systemic Challenges, Systemic Responses – A Report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Friday, April 25, 11:40 am to 1:10 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chair: Kathryn B. Chval (University of Illinois at Chicago) Participants: Kara J. Jackson (University of Washington), Tina Cheuk (California Polytechnic State University - San Luis Obispo) Commentators: Louis M. Gomez (University of California - Los Angeles), Elizabeth Tipton (Northwestern University)
The 2024 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Scaling and Sustaining Pre-K-12 STEM Education Innovations, examines the interconnected factors at local, regional, and national levels that foster or hinder the widespread implementation of promising, evidence-based Pre-K-12 STEM education innovations, identifies gaps in the research, and provides guidance on how to address barriers to implementation. This report comes in response to a mandate within the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. This session will feature an overview of the report and recommendations from members of the committee that produced the consensus study, as well as discussion on future research directions based on the recommendations provided in the report.
Equity in K-12 STEM Education: Framing Decisions for the Future – A Report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Friday, April 25, 1:30 pm to 3:0o pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chair: Roslyn A. Mickelson (University of North Carolina - Charlotte), Barbara Schneider (Michigan State University) Participants: Megan Bang (Northwestern University), William R. Penuel (University of Colorado - Boulder), Thomas M. Philip (University of California - Berkeley), Stefanie L. Marshall (Michigan State University), Christopher G. Wright (Drexel University) Commentator: Roslyn A. Mickelson (University of North Carolina - Charlotte), Barbara Schneider (Michigan State University)
The 2024 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Equity in K-12 STEM Education: Framing Decisions for the Future, approaches equity in STEM education not as a singular goal but as an ongoing process that requires intentional decision-making and action toward addressing and disrupting existing inequities and envisioning a more just future. Stakeholders at all levels of the education system - including state, district, and school leaders and classroom teachers - have roles as decision-makers who can advance equity. This consensus study report provides five equity frames as a guide to help decision-makers articulate short- and long-term goals for equity and make decisions about policy and practice. This session will feature an overview of the report and recommendations from members of the committee that produced the consensus study, as well as discussion on future research directions based on the recommendations provided in the report.
Early Career Research Fellowship and Funding Opportunities Friday, April 25, 3:20 pm to 4:50 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Chair: George Bohrnstedt Participants: Jack Busbee (National Academy of Education), Rhoda Freelon (The Spencer Foundation), Jenny Irons (William T. Grant Foundation), George L. Wimberly (American Educational Research Association)
This session will highlight research funding and fellowship opportunities that are available through scholarly societies and foundations that are tailored to early career scholars. Presenters will provide an overview of the early career funding and fellowship opportunities that their organizations offer, with moderated Q&A to follow presentations.
The Handbook Education Policy Research Roundtable Session Saturday, April 26, 8:00 am to 9:30 am The Colorado Convention Center, Terrace Level - Bluebird Ballroom Room 1A
Chairs: Janelle T. Scott (University of California - Berkeley), Lora A. Cohen-Vogel (University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill), Peter A. Youngs (University of Virginia)
Contributors from the brand new AERA Handbook of Education Policy Research will discuss the contents from their chapters in this roundtable session.
The Revision of the AERA-APA-NCME Testing Standards: Focus on Applications of Measurement Saturday, April 26, 8:00 am to 9:30 am Hilton Denver City Center, Lower Lever 2 - Colorado Ballroom Salon EF
This is the second of two joint sessions that will update the memberships of AERA and NCME and provide an opportunity for input on the Standards. Specifically, this session will address the Applications section of the Standards, with a focus on test score interpretation, use, and misuse, as well as the role of unintended consequences. The Joint Committee (JC) received its charge on August 21, 2024, has been meeting with experts, and is working on the Standards revision. In this second session, participants will receive an update on the process and hear from members of the JC regarding their work and any current challenges being addressed by the committee in the area of applications. The majority of the session is intended to hear from participants about their thoughts on the ongoing revision, in reaction to the updates or regarding their own questions, hopes, or concerns for the revision.
Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching Saturday, April 26, 9:50 am to 11:20 am The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Chair: Anne-Marie Nunez (University of Texas - El Paso) Participant: Anne Egger (Central Washington University) Presenter: Kerry Brenner (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine) Commentators: Todd Campbell (University of Connecticut), Tabbye Maria Chavous (University of Michigan)
The 2025 consensus report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Supporting Equitable and Effective Teaching, calls on leaders of institutions and academic units, instructors, and other stakeholders to leverage their important roles to improve the landscape of undergraduate STEM education so that all students can thrive. As one step toward addressing inequities and transforming undergraduate STEM education, this report presents a set of Principles for Equitable and Effective Teaching. This report also provides guidance for improving teaching and related changes to the institutional context that are needed to support instructors and enable student-centered undergraduate STEM education. This session will feature an overview of the report and recommendations from members of the committee that produced the consensus study, as well as discussion on future research directions based on the recommendations provided in the report.
The Future of Critical Methodology: Commitments and Community Saturday, April 26, 11:40 am to 1:10 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 1EF
Participants: Meagan Call-Cummings (Johns Hopkins University), Robert Graham (University of Maryland), Wendy Castillo (Montclair State University), Richard Blissett (University of Maryland - Baltimore County), Jori N. Hall (University of Illinois at Chicago)
Undergirding much of the current political climate are battles over how people should learn about and make sense of race, racism, and the world in which we live. Since 2020, over 800 pieces of legislation have been introduced in the United States seeking to restrict the types of engagement people can have with understanding race, power, and other social systems (Alexander, 2022; CRT Forward, n.d). In addition, for a long time now, scholars have identified that socialized understandings of inequality that primarily attribute disparities to individual effort and racial stereotypes explain resistance to race-consciousness (e.g., Kluegel & Smith, 1986; Sears, 1988). In other words, people’s understandings of the state of the world are critical to their support for justice. While it has long been the case that the politics of justice have been central to American political development (Jost, 2009), people’s understanding of and learning about race, racism, and other social contexts are much more explicitly points of concern in our current political climate. Therefore, the construction of knowledge is central to not only the mission of the academy, but also the norms, ideologies, and politics that both expand and contract possibilities for just futures.
Addressing Educational Inequities in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic – A Commissioned Paper Series of the National Academy of Education Saturday, April 26, 3:20 pm to 4:50 pm The Colorado Convention Center, Ballroom Level - Mile High Ballroom 4AB
Chairs: Odis Johnson (Johns Hopkins University) Commentator: Fernando M. Reimers (Harvard University), Joseph Bishop (University of California - Los Angeles) Presenters: Gloria J. Ladson-Billings (University of Wisconsin - Madison), Michael J. Feuer (The George Washington University), Andrew McEachin (ETS), Megan Kuhfeld (NWEA), Sarah L. Woulfin (University of Texas at Austin), David M. Osher (American Institutes for Research), Wehmah Jones (American Institutes for Research), Robert Jagers (Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning), Sophia Rodriguez (New York University), Ann M. Ishimaru (University of Washington)
A recently released National Academy of Education (NAEd) commissioned paper series for the project, Addressing Educational Inequities in the Wake of the COVID-19 Pandemic, addresses the urgent need to identify and implement strategies that support academic learning, student well-being, and family and community engagement in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper series highlights the profound and ongoing effects of COVID-19 on educational opportunities, particularly for historically marginalized students (including BIPOC students, students from low-income families, students with disabilities, and multilingual learners), and underscores the necessity of bold, systemic reforms to ensure equitable and effective learning environments. The commissioned papers examine evidence-based strategies to mitigate opportunity gaps, strengthen student supports, and foster inclusive, community-centered approaches that enhance educational outcomes for all learners.