2013 AERA Fellows


Click the name to jump to each fellow's citation of accomplishment and introductory video.

Frank Achtenhagen, University of Goettingen

Dr. Frank Achtenhagen is an outstanding scholar and teacher in the field of professional learning. He is one of the most cited researchers in VET learning, especially the simulation of learning processes in firms where young apprentices apply their knowledge in complex production phases. He is a leading light in empirical research on vocational education in German-speaking countries and worldwide. He was one of the pioneers of empirical research following WWII, breaking the mold of Continental theoretical and normative approaches to education research.

 
Philip G. Altbach, Boston College

Dr. Philip Altbach is a preeminent American higher education comparativist. His analysis of the status of countries as “peripheries” or “centers” of research production has become a standard concept internationally. He was the founding editor of Educational Policy and continued to serve in that role for almost 20 years, while leading a prolific career as scholar and editor of major handbooks and volumes. Dr. Altbach’s mentoring of generations of students has contributed to defining a scholarly community and shaping comparative education as a field.

 
Arthur Applebee, SUNY, University at Albany 

Dr. Arthur Applebee is one of the most influential scholars in the history of research in the domain of English language education. His book, Tradition and Reform in the Teaching of English, remains the definitive history of the field, with no study matching the book’s insights between when it was published in 1974 and today. Dr. Applebee’s publications have been referenced six-thousand, four hundred, ninety-seven times. He has been awarded more than $27 million dollars in external funds in a field where dollars are scarce.

 
Thomas Bailey, Teachers College, Columbia University

Dr. Thomas Bailey is an eminent scholar of higher education. He is widely recognized for his research on community colleges and for his work linking postsecondary education to the labor market demand for skilled workers. Dr. Bailey has mounted an ambitious effort to find out why many under-represented groups, such as immigrants, the poor, and minorities, do not fully participate in higher education and complete their degrees. He is a pioneer in studying both remediation and financial aid programs.

 
Deborah Ball, University of Michigan

Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball is among the very top scholars in mathematics education and teacher preparation in the United States. Her observations have led to deep reconsiderations in the field of what primary school teachers of mathematics need to know and understand. Dr. Ball has uncovered basic processes of children’s numerical reasoning, while leading a double life as a second grade math teacher in a public school and as a university professor and researcher in math education. In her most recent collaborative work, Dr. Ball is examining the practices of teaching and student outcomes with innovative approaches that embrace qualitative and quantitative methods and longitudinal and quasi-experimental designs.

 
Cherry Banks, University of Washington, Bothell

Dr. Cherry McGee Banks is widely known for significant and sustained contributions to multicultural education. She has been a powerful voice in resurrecting the almost invisible history of the intercultural education movement. Her collective body of collaborative and co-edited work for more than three decades has received national and global recognition. Now in its 8th edition, Multicultural Education: Issues and Practice is a standard in the field, and both editions of the Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education are the go-to reference.

 
Betsy Becker, Florida State University

Dr. Betsy Jane Becker represents the best at the interface between education and quantitative methods. She has importantly advanced the development of meta-analytic techniques for synthesizing data across diverse studies. Her work is groundbreaking on such topics as evaluating the adjustment of young children to divorce and analysis of whether coaching for the SATs actually works. Recognized for her quantitative work, she has also contributed to statistical theory.

 
Carol Camp-Yeakey, Washington University in St. Louis

Dr. Carol Camp Yeakey has made noteworthy contributions to education research, theory, practice, and policy. Her research and scholarly accomplishments span a breadth of topics such as immigration, child welfare, urban education, juvenile justice, and public schooling. She is widely recognized for her systematic examination of how educational achievement relates to community, social organization, and public policy in the US and internationally. Her scholarly depth, passion for teaching, and mentoring have touched students at all levels.

 
  Michelene Chi, Arizona State University

Dr. Michelene Chi has made substantial and outstanding contributions to both education and psychology. Her record of achievement in cognitive science is innovative and groundbreaking in many different areas, including: the role of knowledge in the development of short-term memory; the role of self-explanation in learning; and the nature of and obstacles to conceptual change. Dr. Chi’s paper on physics expertise in Cognitive Science is a “citation classic,” chosen by the journal as one of its “10 Classics.”

 
Victoria Chou, University of Illinois, Chicago

Dr. Victoria Chou is an outstanding literacy researcher. Her body of work includes significant articles related to basic processes in reading comprehension, bilingual issues in reading and writing, as well as teacher preparation and leadership. In her own scholarship and in cultivating new scholars, she has shaped research on literacy practices in homes and communities and their relationship to school literacy. Notably, as Dean of the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago since 1997, she has also transformed how a research institution can possibly affect students living in poverty in an urban school district.

 
Jill Fitzgerald, MetaMetrics; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dr. Jill Fitzgerald is highly regarded for her research on text complexity for beginning readers, literacy for multilingual learners, and writing. Her extensive and prolific scholarly career led in 2011 to her being inducted in the Reading Hall of Fame. Dr. Fitzgerald spent one year as a first-grade teacher in a school experiencing a high influx of Latino students, resulting in one of the first investigations to document Latino students’ emergent English-reading processes. Her work has contributed to national debates about whether reading instruction for monolingual students could be used for English-language learners who do not have good English-language skills.

 
Marybeth Gasman, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Marybeth Gasman is a leading historian of education. Her research has significantly contributed to knowledge about historically black colleges. Well known for the quality and quantity of her scholarship, Dr. Gasman focuses on educational opportunities for underrepresented students, along with philanthropic, organizational, and policy strategies for remedying inequality. Her work addresses timely policy issues as well as historical patterns of racial discrimination and efforts to overcome this oppression. Dr. Gasman is noted as a public scholar for her many media interviews and blogs connecting scholarship to core social justice issues.

 
Jeffrey Henig, Teachers College, Columbia University

Dr. Jeffrey Henig is an accomplished scholar who consistently produces thoughtful studies and analyses that shape the way we understand the politics and policy of education. His work addresses the boundary between public and private education reform. Most notable are major contributions to understanding school choice, charter schools, and how the idealized distinction between government and markets masks the ways they interact in school reform. Dr. Henig’s breadth of contribution is most recently evident by his book, Spin Cycle, on the politics of research and on how evidence changes opinion.

 
David H. Jonassen, University of Missouri

Dr. David Jonassen was a leading scholar in instructional design and technology and one of the most influential worldwide. With a prolific publication record of books and journal articles, he is best known for his work on constructivist learning and computers as mind tools and how to teach higher-order thinking skills. Dr. Jonassen opened the eyes of many researchers and educators about the limitations of computers on the one hand and yet the possibilities of computers on the other.

 
David F. Labaree, Stanford University

Dr. David Labaree is a leading scholar known for sustained contributions to the historical and sociological analysis of schools and the social organization of education across levels of education. He has significantly advanced understanding of how market forces structure the supply of and demand for educational reform and educational credentials. His analyses of the power of the market, a conception of education as a private good, and a vision of education as a social good, have added to knowledge and illuminated the limited success of school reform today.

 

 
Jaekyung Lee, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Dr. Jaekyung Lee is a highly regarded scholar in education policy research and analysis. He meshes sophisticated application of quantitative research methods to the study of the achievement gap and assessment and accountability policies. Dr. Lee has made significant contributions to international comparative education, offering critical insights into policy benchmarking efforts. He also uses large-scale national databases to look at the effect of policies on student achievement, including issues surrounding high-stakes testing such as high school exit exams and college entrance exams.

 
Larry H. Ludlow, Boston College

Dr. Larry Ludlow is an accomplished scholar in educational measurement and statistics who has been dedicated to mentoring generations of students. He has contributed importantly to the measurement of teacher practice and skills such as through the development of the Attitude Towards Mathematics and its Teaching Scale. His work ranges from significant contributions to psychometrics and statistical methodology to collaborations with investigators in both education and health sciences. The significance of his work in medicine and health further demonstrates the range of his skill and the usefulness of his research to these sciences.

 
Andrew Martin, University of Sydney

Dr. Andrew Martin is an exceptional scholar of wide international reputation in student motivation, engagement, and achievement. He has made cumulative and substantial contributions to addressing the interplay of cognitive and social-motivational factors in learning and achievement with gifted and underrepresented populations. His work importantly extends multidimensional motivation and engagement research into areas of aboriginal/indigenous education, immigrant education, and the education of students with ADD/ADHD. Tackling “hot issues” that have significant policy implications, Dr. Martin is not only among the most prolific academic scholars worldwide but also a leader in seeking to translate highlevel,
rigorous research for parents, teachers, and other practitioners who work with children and youth on a daily basis.

 
Russell Rumberger, University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Russell Rumberger is highly regarded as one of the finest education research scholars, known for the quality of his research and his deep commitment to students and to mentoring. His work has advanced our knowledge of fundamental problems in the schooling of American children and youth. His contributions are substantial on such issues as overeducation in the labor market and educational equity in particular for Latinos, English learners, and low-income students. Reflecting a deep investment in theory development and study for over two decades, Dr. Rumberger’s research on school dropout and his signature book—Dropping Out: Why Students Drop Out and What Can Be Done About It—is widely acclaimed.

 
Frances King Stage, New York University

Dr. Frances King Stage is recognized as one of the leading researchers in the area of college student learning, especially from STEM disciplines and student participation in math and science majors. Dr. Stage has reframed the study of access, success, and student learning in math and science for women and minority groups. Also, her work has added to our understanding of the role of minority serving institutions. She was pathbreaking in her use of quantitative modeling to understand mediating factors in higher education and in the transition from high school to college. Using qualitative methods as well, Dr. Stage is among only a handful of higher education scholars who have studied teaching up close, including with video observation.

 
Keith E. Stanovich, University of Toronto

Dr. Keith E. Stanovich is an exceptional scholar of national and international visibility in two fields—reading AND cognition, learning, and education. In reading, he has had a significant impact on diagnosing reading difficulties and reconceptualizing dyslexia. His research explains why and the consequences of an observable “Matthew effect”—those with reading skill further improve over time and those who read poorly fall increasingly behind. No less important is Dr. Stanovich’s research debunking current thinking about IQ and IQ tests and why a focus on rationality can lead education and other fields toward a different and less culturally biased understanding of intelligence.

 
Amy Stuart Wells, Teachers College, Columbia University

Dr. Amy Stuart Wells is a prolific scholar who has concentrated her research on policies at the intersection of racial inequality and schooling. Her studies of school choice, charter schools, desegregation, detracking,
and suburban responses to demographic shifts have contributed to understanding how educational policies, or resistance to them, connect with larger cultural concerns over race, social stratification, and access to high-quality schooling. Beyond the richness and rigor of her qualitative research on critical issues in education, Dr. Wells is highly regarded for her mentoring of students and for her capacity as a publicaly engaged scholar and effective communicator.

 

Kenneth Zeichner, University of Washington

Dr. Kenneth M. Zeichner is highly regarded nationally and internationally as an eminent scholar in teacher education. He is well known for his many innovative contributions and for mentoring next generations. He was among the first scholars to focus on how to prepare teachers for diverse student populations. Dr. Zeichner served as co-director of the AERA five-year project addressed to the competing and contradictory claims about the research base for teacher education. He was co-editor of the book product of that effort—Studying Teacher Education—and the lead author on charting a new research agenda.