September 2024

AERA has announced 18 recipients of its Dissertation and Research Grant Awards. Grant recipients are studying salient topics in STEM education and policy, early childhood development, teacher and student school experiences, and postsecondary education. The recipients are selected through and supported by the AERA-NSF Grants Program, which has been funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 1990.

The recipients are selected from a highly competitive applicant pool of researchers who are using federally funded data sets such as the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES), the High School Longitudinal Study, and the Civil Rights Data Collection, as well as the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) data from Michigan, North Carolina, and Tennessee. These studies use rigorous quantitative methods and advanced statistical techniques to examine topics in education research.

Dissertation grants provide advanced graduate students with $27,500 for one year as they complete their research and writing, and early career scholars with up to $35,000 for a two-year study. In addition, scholars participate in professional development and training activities aimed at building their research capacity and encouraging the use of large-scale data in education research. A goal of the Grants Program is that the grantees will publish their research in top peer-reviewed journals and that their work will inform education practices and policies, particularly in STEM education and learning.

The NSF has funded the Grants Program for over three decades in support of AERA’s efforts to enhance the visibility and use of large-scale designed and administrative data by means of dissertation and research grants and statistical institutes aimed at building research capacity. Over 600 graduate students and early career scholars have received these grants as they launched their careers and developed their research agendas in STEM education research.

“The AERA-NSF Grants Program supports some of the most rigorous studies in STEM education research using large-scale data sets,” said Barbara Schneider (Michigan State University), chair of the program’s governing board. “We are pleased that we can provide graduate students and early career scholars with the support and training to conduct this important research.”

Current and former grantees will participate in the upcoming AERA-NSF Grants Program Fall Research Conference and will present their research in poster sessions during the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting in Denver. For more information about the Grants Program, visit the AERA website. A new call for proposals for the dissertation grants and research grants will be released later this fall.

The table below lists the dissertation and research grant recipients who have recently commenced their awards.

Dissertation Grantees

	Anika Alam	University of Pennsylvania	Using Machine Learning to Advance High School Dropout Prediction and Prevention
	Johanna Bernard	University of Pennsylvania	Exploring Variation in Impact of the Tennessee Pre-K Study: Decomposing Treatment Effects by Alternative Childcare Options
	Naomi Duran	University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign	Neighborhoods and Educational Opportunity Structures: An Examination of Factors Affecting Sense of Belonging among High School Students
	Todd Hall	University of Virginia	No Hitting: Effects of a Corporal Punishment Ban for Students with Disabilities in Louisiana
	Taiyo Itoh	University of Oregon	Exploring the Relationship between English Learners and Their Peers: Secondary School Math and ELA Course-Taking in Three States
	Salman Khan	Harvard University	Unlocking Potential: Analyzing the Impact of Second Chance Pell on Incarcerated Students
	Dillon McGill	Vanderbilt University	How Family Preferences Structure Educational (Sub)Markets: A Network Approach
	Alexander Moran	Florida State University	Strengthening the Teacher Pipeline: A Teacher Loan Forgiveness Policy Option
	Diana Quintero-Castellanos	Vanderbilt University	Long-Term Effects of Grade Retention on English Learner Students: A Gateway or a Gatekeeper?
	Melanie Seyarto	University of California, Los Angeles	Connecting Head Start Teachers' Wellbeing to Children's School Readiness
	Mary Smith	Vanderbilt University	Ready for What? A Mixed Methods Case Study of Tennessee's Ready Graduate Accountability Indicator

Research Grantees

	Sammy Ahmed	University of Rhode Island	The Impact of High Scope’s Preschool Curricular Enhancements and Teacher Coaching System on Children's Academic Trajectories across Elementary School
	Mark Chin and Tasminda Dhaliwal	Vanderbilt University and Michigan State University	Effects of Nuisance Ordinances on Mathematics Achievement, Housing Instability, and Other Educational Mechanisms
	Christopher Cormier	Loyola Marymount University	Understanding the Educational Impact of STEM Teacher-Student Racial Match for High School Students Receiving Special Education Services
	Derek Houston	Southern Illinois University	Exploring the Relationship Between Receiving Special Education Services and Educational Outcomes for High School Students That Experience Having a STEM Teacher of Color
	Ye Shen	University of South Florida	The Unique and Overlapping Contributions of Neurobiological Reading and Math Networks to Academic Achievement
	Minseok Yang	University of Missouri	The Impacts of Gender-Race Match between Students and Teachers on Student STEM Outcomes