January 2021

AERA has announced 22 recipients of the Dissertation and Research Grant Awards. Recipients are studying salient and relevant topics in education research and STEM such as science learning, early childhood development and mathematics skills, LGBTQ issues in schools, teacher and student school experiences, and outcomes of education policies and practices. The recipients are selected through and supported by the AERA-NSF Grants Program, which has been funded by the National Science Foundation since 1990.

These scholars are using federal data sets such as the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the High School Longitudinal Study, and the U.S. Census, as well as Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems from California, Tennessee, and Texas. These studies use rigorous quantitative methods and advanced statistical techniques to examine topics and issues in education research.

The grants provide advanced graduate students with $25,000 for one year as they write up their research 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 large-scale data in education research.

Since 1990, the AERA-NSF Grants Program has supported of over 600 graduate students and early career scholars as they launched their careers and developed their research agendas in STEM education research.

“The AERA-NSF Grants Program provides outstanding training and support for graduate students and early career researchers using large-scale data to study STEM and other education research topics” said Barbara Schneider (Michigan State University), chair of the program’s Governing Board. “For over three decades, the program has developed new scholars in education research and produced numerous publications that inform our understanding of education practices, policies, and phenomena.”

Current and former AERA-NSF Grants Program recipients will present their research in poster sessions during the 2021 Virtual AERA Annual Meeting. For more information about the grants program visit the AERA website. The next proposal deadline for Dissertation and Research Grants will be in spring 2021. The tables below list the Dissertation and Research Grant recipients who have commenced their awards in 2020.

New AERA-NSF Grants Program Dissertation Grantees
Recipient		Project Title
Lynneah Brown Pennsylvania State University		​Impacts of Tennessee's Performance-Based Funding Policy on STEM Degree Production at Four-Year Universities: A Longitudinal Analysis Using a Difference-in-Differences Design
Kennan Cepa University of Pennsylvania		​Substitute or Supplement? Parent Loans for Undergraduate Students (PLUS) and the Implications for Inequality
Tasminda Dhaliwal University of Southern California		​No Place Like Home: A Study of the Contextual Factors Shaping Experiences of Student Homelessness and the Effects of Affordable Housing Development on Homeless and Mobile Students
Brian Fitzpatrick University of Notre Dame		“Math People" Need Not Apply: Mathematics Achievement, Math Self-Efficacy, and Gender in the Selection into Elementary Education and Its Effect on Student Learning
Jill Gandhi New York University		How Families' Resources, Constraints, and Contexts Influence Their Children's Early Care and Education Experiences
Sophie Litschwartz Harvard University		Characterizing Cross-Site Variation in Local Average Treatment Effects in Multisite RDD Contexts with an Application to High School Math Graduation Requirements
Zoe Mandel Pennsylvania State University		The Principles of Principals: The Impact of School Leader Characteristics on Teacher Turnover
Rachel Perera Pardee RAND Graduate School (Joint AERA-Minority Dissertation Fellowship and AERA-NSF Grants Program scholar. )		Examining Federal Investigations of Racial Discrimination in School Discipline
Theo Pippins Teachers College, Columbia University		Nudges to College Access: Does SAT Testing Improve College Enrollment and Choices for Disadvantaged Students?
Kirsten Slungaard Mumma Harvard University		Language Skills and Immigrant Success
Yangyang Wang Pennsylvania State University		Do Inhibitory Control Difficulties Help Explain Peer Victimization in U.S. Elementary Schools?
Jeremy Wright-Kim University of Pennsylvania		Enrollment and Revenue: An Exploration of the Community College Baccalaureate
Qing Zhang University of California, Irvine		Addressing Challenges to the Scale-up of Effective Early Childhood Programs in the Changing Landscape of Early Childhood Education

 

New AERA-NSF Grants Program Research Grantees
Recipient		Project Title
Emily Daubert University of Hawaii		Dual Language Learning, Working Memory, and Math Achievement in Kindergarten
Jason Garvey University of Vermont		​Queering Student Success: Exploring Structural Relationships for QT Student College Enrollment
Bryan Keller Teachers College, Columbia University		​Assessment and Demonstration of Methods for Estimating Heterogeneous Treatment Effects with Large-Scale Observational Data
Jihyun Kim (Co-Principal Investigator) Lehigh University	Esther Lindström (Principal Investigator) Lehigh University	Effects of Dual Licensure on Student Mathematics Achievement
Michael Little North Carolina State University		Estimating the Relationship Between Preschool Attendance and Executive Function in Elementary School
Scott Peters University of Wisconsin, Whitewater		Equity in Advanced Learning: What Makes for a Successful School?
Elizabeth Rivera Rodas Montclair State University		The Impact of Gentrification on Mathematics Achievement of Latino High School Students
Jacqueline Sims Boston University		Prospective Links between Maternal Depressive Symptoms and Children's School Readiness Skills and Well Being among Black/African American Families: Early Care and Education as a Protective Resource