September 2024
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has announced a three-year award of approximately $2.5 million to continue support for the AERA Grants Program (Award #NSF-DRL 2427469). Effective October 1, this new project, Advancing STEM Knowledge through Scientific Studies of Large-Scale Data Resources, continues a partnership that has supported education research and advanced scientific knowledge about education since 1990.
The funding will enable the AERA-NSF Grants Program to continue to provide doctoral dissertation support and small grants for research and to offer professional development and training in quantitative data analysis, with an emphasis on STEM education and learning. Each year AERA will offer two competitions for these awards to advanced graduate students and early career researchers.
The new award will also make possible two Statistical Institutes that will examine STEM equity at the pre-K-12 grade level and at the postsecondary level and the workforce. During these three-day institutes, a faculty of senior education researchers will provide hands-on training in quantitative methods and statistical analysis to address STEM equity issues and topics. An aim of these institutes is for graduate students and early career participants to form collaborative research teams to examine STEM topics and to create communities of researchers using large-scale data to examine STEM education and learning.
The award also will support the Virtual STEM Data and Data Use Learning Series, an open-access virtual workshop series that will examine the structure, design, and purpose of multiple large scale data sets. In these virtual workshops, expert faculty will teach computational and quantitative methods using existing data to explore STEM learning topics and to provide opportunities for small group interactions.
The program, a collaboration between AERA and NSF, has two primary goals: to enhance the capacity of the education research community to conduct policy-relevant research using extensive national, state, and international data sets supported by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), NSF, and other federal agencies; and to foster high-quality, rigorous research. Over the years, more than 600 graduate students and early-career scholars have benefited from these grants, helping them launch research careers and develop their academic agendas.
The Grants Program will have a special emphasis on outreach to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and other Minority Serving Institutions. This is part of the Grant Program’s effort to build research capacity and enhance STEM education research participation of minoritized doctoral students and early career scholars and those studying and working in minoritized institutions.
“Through the generous funding from NSF, this program has helped AERA support a diverse pool of new scholars in pursuing fundamental research,” said AERA Executive Director and Grants Program Principal Investigator, Felice J. Levine. “The program has driven new priorities, encouraged research innovation, and promoted the use of rigorous research methods.”
In recent years, the program has produced significant research related to STEM education and equity in STEM fields. Since 2017, the scope of the program expanded to include the use of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, enabling researchers to analyze state-level data on topics such as STEM course enrollment, student achievement, high school graduation, and postsecondary degree attainment.
Moving forward, the AERA Grants Program will continue to support groundbreaking research with four key aims: advancing knowledge in education research, enhancing diversity and equity in STEM, fostering a culture of open science and data innovation, and promoting research practices that ensure broader societal impact. The program will place particular emphasis on research that addresses equity and inclusion, focusing on underrepresented demographics in STEM environments.
The program is led by Principal Investigator Levine and Co-Principal Investigator George L. Wimberly (AERA Director of Professional Development) with the guidance and advice of a Governing Board of distinguished scholars. Chaired by Barbara Schneider (Michigan State University), the Board also includes George W. Bohrnstedt (American Institutes for Research), Steven A. Culpepper (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Louis Gomez (University of California, Los Angeles), Kenneth Frank (Michigan State University), Larry V. Hedges (Northwestern University), Chandra Muller (University of Texas at Austin), and Laura M. Stapleton (University of Maryland, College Park) in addition to Levine and Wimberly.