March 2016

Eleven projects have been selected to receive awards through AERA’s Education Research Service Projects (ERSP) initiative. The ERSP program is designed to encourage education researchers to offer their pro bono expertise to educational organizations, institutions, or other community groups that have identified and expressed a need for such assistance. The selected awardees receive small grants ranging from $1,000 to $5,000 to defray direct costs involved in these projects.

“Now in its fourth year, the ERSP program enables education researchers to respond to deep and significant needs at educational entities, both nationally and internationally,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Many of these educational entities might not otherwise have access to this expertise. By generously sharing their time and their research expertise, this year’s awardees exemplify the spirit of service that is central to the ERSP program.”

ERSP awardees in 2016 will address a broad selection of research topics, including youth nutrition and health education, teacher retention and attrition, kindergarten readiness, and inclusion and achievement for students with disabilities, among others. Funded projects range from program evaluation to youth-led ethnographic research, and include both qualitative and quantitative projects.

With this year’s awards, a total of 42 projects have now been funded through the ERSP initiative. In 2013, the inaugural call for proposals resulted in the selection of 12 projects to receive awards; nine projects were funded in 2014; and an additional ten awards were made in 2015. The ERSP Selection Committee, a subcommittee of AERA Council, chose the following eleven projects to receive awards in 2016:

• Least Restrictive Environments and Achievement for Students With Disabilities in a Large, Urban School District Principal Investigator: Elizabeth D. Cramer (Florida International University)
  Educational Entity: Miami-Dade County Public Schools
  
  
• A Bilingual Kids’ Café: Addressing Nutrition Education, Food Insecurity, and Food Literacies in a North Georgia Community
  Principal Investigators: Denise Dávila (The University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and Stephanie Jones (The University of Georgia)
  Educational Entity: Food Bank of Northeast Georgia
  
  
• Austin Early Childhood Collaborative
  Principal Investigator: Samina Hadi-Tabassum (Northern Illinois University)
  Educational Entity: Austin Coming Together
  
  
• Creative Corridor Center for Equity’s Focus Project
  Principal Investigators: Deanna Hill and Kristine Lewis Grant (Drexel University)
  Educational Entities: Creative Corridor Center for Equity (C3E), Iowa City Community School District, Cedar Rapids Community School District, Linn-Mar Community School District, and Waterloo Community School District
  
  
• Identifying the Professional Development Needs of Rural Educators to Enhance School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports
  Principal Investigator: Brittany L. Hott (Texas A&M University-Commerce)
  Educational Entity: Lamar County Shared Service Arrangement
  
  
• Exploring Individual Impacts and Documenting Collective Voice at the Youth Bike Summit
  Principal Investigator: Allison H. Mattheis (California State University, Los Angeles) 
  Educational Entity: Recycle-A-Bicycle
  
  
• An Analysis of Teachers’ Career Paths in Arizona: Retention, Mobility and Attrition
  Principal Investigators: Jeanne M. Powers and Margarita Pivovarova (Arizona State University)
  Educational Entity: Arizona Department of Education
  
  
• Effective Screening in Kindergarten: Partnering to Assess Behavioral and Academic Readiness to Learn
  Principal Investigators: Maria Rogers (University of Ottawa) and Robert Volpe (Northeastern University)
  Educational Entity: Ottawa-Carleton District School Board
  
  
• A S.E.L.F. Evaluation
  Principal Investigators: Anita M. Wells and Amber B. Hodges (Morgan State University)
  Educational Entity: Sisters Empowered to be Leaders for the Future (S.E.L.F.) Program
  
  
• Professional Development Needs of Black, Christian Teachers in the Service of LGBTQIA Youth
  Principal Investigator: Ashley N. Woodson (University of Pittsburgh)
  Educational Entity: Saginaw MAX Systems of Care
  
  
• Developing Professional Development for K–12 Teachers and School Leaders in Response to the Growing Suburban Diversity
  Principal Investigator: Judy W. Yu (REACH)
  Educational Entity: ERASE Racism

Brief abstracts of all ERSP projects funded from 2013 to present are available on the AERA website. Results and findings of these ERSP projects will continue to be disseminated at the AERA Annual Meeting and through the AERA website.

The call for proposals for the next ERSP submission and review cycle will come out later this year, with a December 2016 deadline.