October 2023
Nearly one hundred AERA leaders and representatives gathered in Washington, D.C., on October 20–21 for the 2023 Leadership Committee Meeting (LCM), which was previously known as the Coordinated Committee Meeting (CCM). It was the first LCM/CCM gathering since 2019, after a hiatus caused by the pandemic. LCM provides an important platform for AERA leaders and members of selected committees to convene to address association goals and further AERA’s mission.
“We were pleased to once again convene the broader association leadership in-person for two days of strategic planning, cross-cutting conversation, and dynamic engagement,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “LCM is designed to not only convene, but to inspire and catalyze participants, for the benefit of the association and the field.”
During the opening session, Levine and AERA President Tyrone C. Howard (University of California, Los Angeles) welcomed the group and gave an overview of the program, including three common tasks that were spread across the two days.
In the first common task, Howard led a panel consisting of Adrienne Dixson (University of Kentucky), Christopher Edley (University of California, Berkeley), and Anne-Marie Núñez (University of Texas at El Paso). In the panel, they discussed steps forward for the field of education research in the context of the 2024 Annual Meeting theme, “Dismantling Racial Injustice and Constructing Educational Possibilities: A Call to Action.” During the conversation, Howard emphasized the importance of all scholars across the field incorporating issues of racial equity and justice into their research.
The second day of the meeting opened with the second common task, a discussion about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in schools of education and how to move forward post-affirmative action. The conversation was catalyzed by a panel featuring Ann Austin (Michigan State University), Chrystalla Mouza (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and special guest Kimberly Griffin (University of Maryland, College Park). The panel was moderated by Daniel Solórzano (University of California, Los Angeles). The panel participants and attendees examined the challenges educators face in ensuring student and faculty diversity and inclusion in environments that are often openly hostile to DEI efforts.
In the final common task session, meeting participants convened for a town hall session facilitated by George Wimberly, AERA’s director of professional development and diversity officer. Wimberly was joined by Levine and Howard. The group was given an update on preliminary thoughts from the AERA justice-related committees about DEI within the association, and had an opportunity to provide feedback and suggestions on how AERA and its members could advance their collective commitment.
The meeting also featured special guests Peggy Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and Mark Schneider, director of the Institute for Education Sciences (IES), who joined the Government Relations Committee and Research Advisory Committee joint meetings on October 20 and 21, respectively. Carr provided updates on administration-wide and NCES initiatives that incorporate federal data and statistics to advance equity, including the recent release of the NCES Equity in Education Dashboard. Schneider detailed several priorities for IES that highlight innovative methods seeking to accelerate learning and research, including efforts to establish a National Center for Advanced Development in Education.