AERA Gives Nod to GSE Faculty, Students

March 10, 2009 - As faculty, students and policy makers from around the world gear up for the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in San Diego, Penn GSE faculty and students have received a number of accolades from the organization, which is the most prominent in educational research.

  • Five members of Penn GSE's faculty have been inducted as AERA Fellows in the class of 2009: Professors Vivian Gadsden, Richard Ingersoll, Rebecca Maynard, Stanton Wortham and Wharton Professor Eric Bradlow, who has a secondary appointment at GSE. The five join Dean Andy Porter and Professor Bob Boruch, who were named to the 2008 class. The AERA Fellows program was established in 2007 to honor education researchers with substantial research accomplishments.
  • Assistant Professor Susan Yoon has been chosen to receive the 2009 Jan Hawkins Award for Early Career Contributions to Humanistic Research and Scholarship in Learning Technologies from AERA's Division C, which specializes in Learning and Instruction. The award will be presented to Dr. Yoon on April 15, during the convention.
  • Professor Vivian Gadsden has been elected member-at-large of the AERA Governing Council,  the legislative and policy-determining body of the Association.
  • Associate Professor Laura Perna has been elected vice president of AERA's Division J (Postsecondary Education) and appointed to the editorial board of the Association's American Educational Research Journal.
  • Stephen Benson, a 2008 graduate of Penn GSE's Mid-Career Doctorate in Educational Leadership program, has been awarded the Dissertation of the Year by AERA's special interest group for Research on the Superintendency. His dissertation is titled "The Similarities and Differences in the Ways Superintendents with and without Prior Experience as Superintendents Work during Their First Year in a New District."
  • Elizabeth Nash Farley-Ripple, a PhD in Education Policy, has been selected to receive the 2009 AERA District SIG Outstanding Dissertation Award for ,  "Accountability, Evidence, and School District Decision-Making."
  • Michael J. Weiss, a 2008 graduate of the Policy, Measurement, and Evaluation division, has been awarded the Dissertation of the Year by AERA's Division L: Education Policy and Politics. His dissertation is titled "Using a Yardstick to Measure a Meter: Growth, projection, and value‐added models in
    the context of school accountability."

Contact: Kat Stein, Exec. Director of Communications / katstein@gse.upenn.edu / (215) 898-9642