May 2025
The 2025 Annual Meeting brought some 14,000 education researchers and other scholars, policy leaders, and practitioners to Denver, Colorado, on April 23-27 for five days of immersion in cutting-edge research, scholarly exchange, connection and networking, and professional development. Attendees from 70 countries came to participate.
Centered on the theme, “Research, Remedy, and Repair: Toward Just Education Renewal," presidential sessions, invited lectures, symposia, poster sessions, and e-Lightening Ed-Talks featured high-quality education research that connected to important issues in education practice and policy.
“The 2025 Annual Meeting brought tremendous energy and exchange around significant research and findings in our field and important pathways forward,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “While the meeting came at a time when science and scholarship in education research and so many fields have been under attack, the value and power of research and the importance of investing in our next generation were inescapable. On behalf of AERA, we thank all participants for making 2025 an exceptional conference.”
Highlights from Denver included AERA 2024–2025 President Janelle Scott’s presidential address, titled “Education Research for a Time Such as This,” which was delivered to an enthusiastic audience of more than 1,800 attendees. During her lecture, Scott touched on how education research needs not only to resist attacks but better construct and sustain quality education, using the metaphor of a California Redwood tree’s ecology to describe how education research might nurture its own multifaceted community (see related story). The lecture was preceded and followed by performances from AERA members who comprised the 2025 AERA Presidential Session Band.
The Opening Plenary featured a panel of experts focused on the future of higher education in polarized times. The panel consisted of Bryan Brayboy (Northwestern University), Shaun R. Harper (University of Southern California), Danielle R. Holley (Mount Holyoke College), OiYan A. Poon (University of Maryland, College Park), and Sarah Willcox (Scholars at Risk). Moderated by AERA President Scott, the panelists with facts and candor grappled with issues top of mind today—the need to communicate and defend the purposes and goal of higher education, the elevation and protection of marginalized voices, and the opportunities for transformation and change. The session was preceded by a performance from the Colorado Youth Mariachi Program.
AERA’s 2025 award winners were honored at the Awards Luncheon and Ceremony, which marked the return of the luncheon format to the event. Among the recipients honored were Robert Pianta (University of Virginia), who received the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award; Joan Ferrini-Mundy (University of Maine), who received the Distinguished Public Service Award; and Raquel Muñiz (Boston College), who received the Early Career Award. Scott also honored two scholars with Presidential Citations for their outstanding contributions to the field: Gary Anderson (New York University) and Shaun R. Harper (University of Southern California).
At the conclusion of the ceremony, President Scott made a special announcement that in honor of Felice Levine, at her final Annual Meeting while serving as AERA executive director, a new award had been established by AERA Council: the Dr. Felice J. Levine Distinguished Contributions to Mentoring in Research and Leadership Award. The first recipient of this award will be selected in the 2026 awards cycle and honored at the 2026 Annual Meeting in Los Angeles.
In addition to the creation of the new award in honor of Levine, other acknowledgements of her tenure included a special session, “Leveraging Research for the Public Good: A Scholar’s Roundtable Honoring the Contributions of Felice J. Levine,” in which participants gave tribute to Levine’s laudable intellectual vision, leadership, and organizational contributions. During the session, it was announced that the Convening Center at AERA’s headquarters office, which was officially completed in 2020, would be named the Felice J. Levine Convening Center at AERA.
The Annual Meeting offered several opportunities that had been continued from previous years. The e-Lightening Ed-Talks were first unveiled at the 2024 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia and expanded to two central stages in 2025. This newer component of the meeting featured 250 brief, rapid-fire talks in 22 time slots and quick audience questions from selected poster authors.
The Graduate Student Research-in-Progress Roundtable Series also returned this year as a special component of the Annual Meeting. The series provided graduate students with an opportunity to share and discuss their work in progress. The series is directed to graduate students who are actively engaged in research but not yet ready to advance an annual meeting paper submission.
The Closing Ceremony on April 27 featured the official AERA Presidential transition, as Scott passed the gavel to 2025–2026 AERA President Maisha T. Winn. Before the transition, Scott also honored Levine with a Presidential Citation.
Videos from major sessions will be posted on the AERA website and YouTube channel by June 18.