Voices from the Field


The Voices from the Field series in AERA Highlights showcases tips from AERA members on topics such as public engagement, research productivity, and more. 

Headshot of Nathan Schilling

Superintendent Nathan Schilling Offers Advice to Education Researchers on How to Engage and Collaborate with School Leaders
Collaboration between education researchers and school leaders such as principals, business officials, and superintendents offers significant benefits. Read more

AERA member Nathan Schilling is the superintendent of Lansing School District 158 in Lansing, IL, a continuing adjunct professor in the Educational Leadership program at Concordia University Chicago, and program chair for AERA SIG 97–Research on the Superintendency.

David DeMatthews Provides Advice for Education Researchers on Why and How to Write Op-Eds​
Education research matters and is relevant to the public as well as to practitioners and policymakers, but researchers are often untrained in connecting with these important audiences. Read more

David DeMatthews is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Erin Baumgartner and Ruth N. López Turley Offer Tips for Planning and Starting a Research-Practice Partnership
Research-Practice Partnerships are long-term partnerships between research institutions and practitioners such as school districts or state education agencies. They are an effective way to increase research use and impact, but they can be challenging to set up and maintain. Read more

Erin Baumgartner is the director of the Houston Education Research Consortium at Rice University’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research; Ruth N. López Turley is a professor of sociology at Rice University and director of the Kinder Institute. 

Robert Kelchen Provides Tips for Summarizing Research for a Broad Audience
Congratulations—your newest article just came out! After conceptualizing your study, finding time to do it in between all of your other responsibilities, and finally getting it through a peer review process that is frequently slow and painful, it’s time to move on to the next project. Right? Read more

Robert Kelchen is a professor of education and head of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Matthew Kraft Offers a Brief How-to Guide to Public Engagement in Academia
For many of us in academia, public engagement is at once intimidating and poorly understood. We think of social media accounts and soundbites, but engaged scholarship is so much more. Public engagement is about stepping outside of our small and insular academic subfields to interact with the broader community. Read more

Matthew Kraft is an associate professor of education and economics at Brown University and the recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Public Communication of Education Research Award from AERA. 

Kendrick Davis Provides Tips for Sharing Research with Policy Makers
Researchers across a range of fields conduct research they desire to be policy-relevant and put to good use in practice. Kendrick Davis reflects on a range of experiences in local, state, and federal government and research to offer eight considerations and strategies for sharing and preparing research for policymaking. Read more

Kendrick B. Davis, who served as an AERA Congressional Fellow in 2018-19, is chief research officer for the Race and Equity Center at the University of Southern California.

Carlton Fong Offers Tips for Research Productivity for Early Career Scholars
Are you new on the tenure track? Here are some tips on research productivity that Carlton Fong shared earlier this month when he met with new Texas State University College of Education faculty. They will help you become a “W.A.T.C.H.ful” scholar while on the clock. Read more

Carlton Fong is an assistant professor in developmental education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University’s College of Education.

Outgoing EEPA Editor Julie Marsh Offers 10 Tips on Submitting Papers for Review
As Julie Marsh transitioned off the editorial team for EEPA, she reflected on reviews seen and decisions made these past four years. Based on her experience, she offers 10 tips. Read more

Julie Marsh, a professor of education policy at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California, served as co-editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis (EEPA) from 2019-2022.