December 2025

From November 20-22, the AERA Grants Program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), held its annual Fall Research Conference at the Dr. Felice J. Levine Convening Center at AERA in Washington, D.C. The event brought together the most recent cohort of AERA-NSF dissertation grantees—advanced graduate students and early career scholars whose research is supported by the program.

The Grants Program provides funding, training, and mentorship to advance understanding of education and learning through rigorous analysis of large-scale data sets, with a special emphasis on STEM education from early childhood through the workforce. The conference offered a platform for grantees to present their research while also participating in professional development and networking opportunities.

Former AERA Minority Dissertation Fellow Camila Polanco

Former grantees showcased their work in paper sessions covering a wide array of topics in STEM education and learning. Research included studies on school choice preferences, college and career readiness indicators, and STEM course tracking for English Language Leaners. Other topics addressed the effects of corporal punishment bans for students with disabilities, federal grantmaking and the educational opportunity gap, teacher loan forgiveness policies, and the use of machine learning to predict and prevent high school dropouts.

Grantees used advanced statistical techniques such as social network analysis and propensity score matching to analyze the data and address their research questions. Presenters also discussed the potential implications for education practice and policy. Paper sessions were chaired by members of the Grant Program Governing Board, who provided feedback and guidance to participants.

Following the presentations, a panel discussion focused on publishing education research in peer-reviewed journals. Panelists included  Governing Board members Tabbye M. Chavous (AERA), Steven A. Culpepper (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), Lara Perez-Felkner (Florida State University), and Barbara Schneider (Michigan State University). The discussion covered navigating the peer-review process, selecting journals to submit to, co-authorship considerations, and other aspects of the publication process.

This year, grantees also participated in communications training, learning how to effectively present their research to the public through 4–6-minute Research EdTalks. Each grantee delivered a short research presentation to the Governing Board and peers as part of this exercise.

Former AERA-NSF Dissertation Grantee Todd Hall

The conference included professional development sessions led by Governing Board members. Peggy G. Carr, former NCES commissioner, presented a session on using large-scale data in challenging times, with additional insights from Chavous and Felice J. Levine (AERA). Chandra Muller (University of Texas at Austin) and Laura Stapleton (University of Maryland, College Park) led a panel and interactive activity on using State Longitudinal Administrative Data, discussing its benefits and strategies for partnerships with state data holders. shared strategies for building meaningful partnerships with state data holders. Kenneth Frank (Michigan State University) taught a methods-focused lesson on sensitivity analysis with large-scale data sets.

These sessions provided valuable opportunities for professional learning with a focus on large-scale data use in education research. Throughout the conference, grantees participated in formal and informal networking and mentoring with the Governing Board and other senior scholars.

“The AERA-NSF Grants Program provides outstanding research training and support for graduate students and early career scholars conducting innovative work across STEM topics,” said Barbara Schneider, Governing Board chair. “These scholars’ contributions will advance education research and STEM learning.”

AERA Grants Program Governing Board and Participating Grantees

Current grantees will present their research in a poster session, “Promising Scholarship in Education: Dissertation Fellows and Their Research,” at the 2026 AERA Annual Meeting in Los Angeles. They will join other graduate students who received dissertation support from AERA and other prestigious fellowship programs. Some of these presentations will also include 4–6-minute Research EdTalks. Each of the poster presentations will be featured in the AERA i-Presentation Gallery.

Since 1990, NSF has funded the AERA Grants Program through nine consecutive awards, supporting over 600 graduate students and early career scholars. The program emphasizes STEM learning, learning environments, and education research, utilizing large-scale federal and federally funded datasets, such as those developed by the National Center for Education Statistics, NSF, and the U.S. Census Bureau.

The next call for dissertation grants and research grants is under revision and will open soon, with an early 2026 deadline. For more information, visit the AERA-NSF Grants Program webpage.