AERA Statement on School Safety Commission’s Recommendation to Repeal Federal Guidance on Reducing Racial Discipline Gaps The Federal Commission on School Safety’s recommendation to repeal 2014 federal guidance calling on schools to address race-based disparities in school discipline should deeply concern parents, educators, policymakers, and the public. Learn more
Can Guaranteed Admissions Help Reduce College Undermatching? A new study published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis found that low-income, highly qualified students are more likely to choose selective universities that match their academic profiles when they know their admission is guaranteed through state automatic admissions policies. Read more
AERA Statement on the Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting AERA mourns the loss of 11 more people senselessly killed at the hands of bigotry, racism, xenophobia, and antisemitism, the latest in a pattern that has become pervasive in our country. Read more
AERA Calls on Congress to Support the Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act of 2018 Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX) introduced the Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act of 2018 (H.R. 7031) which aims to address sexual harassment in the sciences by providing funding for additional research. Read more
Richard Milner, Distinguished Scholar of Urban Education and Teacher Education, to Deliver 15th Annual Brown Lecture in Education Research H. Richard Milner IV will examine practices and policies at national, state, district, and local levels that are implicitly or overtly designed to punish rather than support academic, social, cultural, and psychological development of Black, Brown, and low-income students. Read more Does More Education Stem Political Violence? A study in Review of Educational Research found that increasing education levels in the population at all levels of the education system—primary, secondary, and postsecondary—reduces most forms of armed conflict and fosters peace. Read more
Study Finds Elementary School Student Support Leads to Lower High School Dropout A study published online in AERA Open found that elementary-school students who participated in a comprehensive support intervention in the Boston public school district had about half the odds of dropping out of high school as students not in the intervention Read more
New Study Examines "Strategic Retention" of Teachers by Effective Principals A study published online in the American Educational Research Journal found that highly rated principals succeed at keeping high-performing teachers while moving out low performers. Read more
AERA Accepting Nominations for 2019 Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research Award AERA is now accepting nominations for the AERA Award for Excellence in Media Reporting on Education Research. This award is presented to an individual in the media who has demonstrated excellence in raising awareness, knowledge, and understanding of education research. Read more
AERA Statement on the Trump Administration’s Detainment of Immigrant Children We express our continuing concern for the thousands of children and their families who are living in trauma and experiencing the pernicious effects of “zero tolerance” and separation policies and practices that render irreparable harm. Read more
New Research Finds Reading and Math Gains of Multilingual Students Have Outpaced English-Only Speakers A study published in Educational Researcher challenges the perception that multilingual students in the United States consistently perform poorly, have shown little academic progress, and are being failed by schools. Read more
Statement by AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine on the Santa Fe, Texas, High School Shooting The mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas, the latest national tragedy caused by gun violence, is another reminder that our nation’s leaders cannot delay taking concrete action to stem the tide of gun violence plaguing American schools and society. Read more
Study Snapshot: The Female Educator Tax: Documenting the Gendered Wage Gap in Public Education Female teachers and school leaders in Pennsylvania earn significantly less financial compensation than their male counterparts, even when accounting for education, experience, school district context, and assignment. Surprisingly, gender wage gaps do not appear for district leaders. Read more
Study Snapshot: Religious Expression in Public Schools: A More Nuanced Understanding A national survey of public teachers’ beliefs about their rights to religious expression finds that a majority of teachers are religious and believe in religious free expression in the abstract, but object to using religious free exercise in a dogmatic fashion or to discriminate against others in schools or other public spheres. Read more
Study Snapshot: Competing for Bachelor’s Degrees: Are Community Colleges Cutting into the Market Share of Four-Year Institutions? Giving community colleges the authority to create bachelor degree programs in Florida did not significantly impact bachelor degree production in similar programs at local four-year public or private nonprofit institutions. Read more
Study Snapshot: College Undermatching, Degree Attainment, and Minority Students Using nationally representative data, this study found that students who attend a less selective college than their qualifications would permit—or “undermatch”—are less likely to graduate college within four years, as well as within six years, than non-undermatched students. Read more
Study Snapshot: Unfulfilled Promises: Transfer to a Charter School and Student Achievement in Indiana Students who transferred to charter schools had significantly lower math gains over their first two years than if they remained in traditional public schools, creating a deficit for those students returning to public schools. Read more
Study Snapshot: School Violence and Victimization Among School-Attending Homeless Youth as Compared With Their Non-Homeless Peers Homeless youths from all subgroups are at high risk of victimization and school violence, especially weapon involvement. Read more
Study Snapshot: School and Residential Segregation in Districts With Voluntary Integration Policies Across 60 school districts with voluntary integration policies, average school-level racial segregation remained constant from 2000 to 2015, while economic segregation decreased by 1.8 percentage points. Read more
Study Snapshot: Alternative Principal Preparation Pathways: North Carolina's Regional Leadership Academies Graduates of North Carolina’s alternative certification programs for school leaders—Regional Leadership Academies (RLA)—have relatively high placement rates and are taking administrator positions in low-performing schools with high concentrations of economically disadvantaged students. Read more
Study Snapshot: Executive Function Deficits in Kindergarten Predict Repeated Academic Difficulties Across Elementary School Deficits in executive functions, especially in working memory, predict kindergarten children’s risk of experiencing repeated academic difficulties from first to third grade. Read more
AERA Selects H. Richard Milner IV to Deliver 2018 Brown Lecture in Education Research Dr. H. Richard Milner IV, a leading scholar of urban education and teacher education at the University of Pittsburgh, has been selected by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) to present the 2018 Brown Lecture in Education Research. Read more
AERA Annual Meeting Session to Address the Role of Education Researchers in the Era of Fake News Attendees at the AERA 2018 Annual Meeting in New York City, April 13–17, will address growing challenges to the fundamental principles and values of research and evidence in the United States in a session titled “The Role of Education Researchers in the Era of Fake News.” Read more
AERA to Hold Town Hall Meetings on Gun Violence Research and Sexual Harassment in Academe at 2018 Annual Meeting AERA has announced that it will hold two live-streamed town hall meetings at its 2018 Annual Meeting in New York City, April 13 - 17. Read more
AERA to Live-stream 15 Annual Meeting Sessions AERA has announced that it is live-streaming 15 sessions at its 2018 Annual Meeting in New York City, April 13 - 17. Read more
AERA Announces 2018 Award Winners in Education Research AERA has announced the winners of its 2018 awards for excellence in education research. AERA will honor the recipients for their outstanding scholarship and service at the sixth annual Awards Luncheon, April 15, at the AERA Annual Meeting in New York City. Read more
More than 15,000 Education Researchers to Meet in New York Join more than 15,000 AERA members and scholars from aligned fields and disciplines, policymakers, and practitioners in New York City to hear from major speakers. Choose from more than 2,500 sessions featuring high-quality and timely education research. Read more
Vanessa Siddle Walker Voted AERA President-Elect Vanessa Siddle Walker, the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of African American Educational Studies at Emory University, has been voted president-elect of AERA. Read more
AERA Statement on the Justice Department’s Announced Cancellation of School Safety Studies The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, has announced on its website that it has cancelled two initiatives that research school safety. Read more
Study Snapshot: How Test Format May Influence Gender Achievement Gaps on State Standardized Tests Measured achievement gaps between male and female students on state accountability tests are larger (more male-favoring) on tests with more multiple-choice questions and fewer constructed-response (i.e., open-ended) questions. Read more
AERA Annual Meeting Program Now Available Online The program for the American Educational Research Association's 2018 Annual Meeting is now available online. Read more AERA Announces 2018 Fellows AERA has announced the selection of 11 prominent scholars as 2018 AERA Fellows. Read more Statement by AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine on the South Florida High School Shooting The deadly and senseless mass shooting yesterday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida serves as yet another horrific episode that requires our nation’s leaders to take concrete steps to stem the tide of gun violence afflicting American schools and society. Read more
Statement from AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine on the Proposed Elimination of the State Longitudinal Data System Program in President Trump’s FY 2019 Budget Request The Department of Education’s Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS) program provides invaluable support for building capacity for state-based longitudinal data systems. These systems serve as the foundation for how states use data and research to guide evidence-based state and local-level decisions. Read more Media Invited to Register for 2018 Annual Meeting of Education Researchers Members of the media are invited to register to attend the AERA 2018 Annual Meeting in New York City, April 13-17, for five days of cutting edge research, ideas, and engagement. The 2018 Annual Meeting theme is "The Dreams, Possibilities, and Necessity of Public Education." Read more
Statement by AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine on the Appointment of New NCES Commissioner It is important for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to have an appointed Commissioner of Education Statistics to assume this special office. Our country could not have been more ably served than by Dr. Peggy G. Carr as Acting Commissioner since 2014. Read more AERA Announces Most Read Education Research Articles of 2017 Research on student loan aversion, the accuracy of youth political knowledge, student achievement in online charter schools, and more appears in the 10 most popular journal articles published by AERA in 2017. Read more