The Vanderbilt University ExpERT-II predoctoral training trained fellows to become experts in conducting randomized field experiments of theory-based interventions and approaches aimed at enhancing student learning in education settings. ExpERT-II leveraged multiple instructional and research activities to train a fellows. The main training activities included formal courses and substantial research experience, teaching opportunities, mini-workshops, a distinguished lecture series, and opportunities for conference attendance. Fellows acquired expertise in conducting high-quality randomized controlled trials of education programs, policies, and practices that were grounded in strong theoretical frameworks and supported by relevant prior empirical evidence. Fellows also developed skills in the use of meta-analytic procedures for answering questions of what works for whom under what circumstances.

List of Completed Fellows: Below is a list of the 29 fellows who received funding support from this award and completed the training program.

*Denotes fellows who received funding from this grant and from R305B040110.

Related IES Projects:Experimental Education Research Training (ExpERT) (R305B040110)

Products and Publications

ERIC Citations: Find available citations in ERIC for this award here.

Select Publications From Completed Fellows:

Journal Articles

Boston, M. D., & Wilhelm, A. G.(2017). Middle school mathematics instruction in instructionally focused urban districts. Urban Education, 52(7), 829–861.

Durkin, K., & Rittle-Johnson, B. (2015). Diagnosing misconceptions: Revealing changing decimal fraction knowledge. Learning and Instruction, 37, 21–29.

Goff, P. T., Mavrogordato, M., & Goldring, E. (2012). Instructional leadership in charter schools: Is there an organizational effect or are leadership practices the result of faculty characteristics and preferences?. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 11(1), 1–25.

Goldring, E. B., Mavrogordato, M., & Haynes, K. T. (2015). Multisource principal evaluation data: Principals' orientations and reactions to teacher feedback regarding their leadership effectiveness. Educational Administration Quarterly, 51(4), 572–599.

Jackson, K., Garrison, A., Wilson, J., Gibbons, L., & Shahan, E. (2013). Exploring relationships between setting up complex tasks and opportunities to learn in concluding whole-class discussions in middle-grades mathematics instruction. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 44(4), 646–682.

Mavrogordato, M. (2012). Educational equity policies and the centralization of American public education: The case of bilingual education. Peabody Journal of Education, 87(4), 455–467.

Mavrogordato, M.(2019). Redefining what it means to be a teacher. School Choice at the Crossroads: Research Perspectives, 109–128.

Mavrogordato, M.,& Stein, M. (2016). Accessing choice: A mixed-methods examination of how Latino parents engage in the educational marketplace. Urban Education, 51(9), 1031–1064.

Mavrogordato, M., & White, R. S. (2017). Reclassification variation: How policy implementation guides the process of exiting students from English learner status. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 39(2), 281–310.

McEldoon, K. L., Durkin, K. L., & Rittle-Johnson, B. (2013). Is self-explanation worth the time? A comparison to additional practice. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(4), 615–632.

Preston, C., Goldring, E., Berends, M., & Cannata, M. (2012). School innovation in district context: Comparing traditional public schools and charter schools. Economics of Education Review, 31(2), 318–330.

Roberts, M. Y., Kaiser, A. P., Wolfe, C. E., Bryant, J. D., & Spidalieri, A. M. (2014). Effects of the teach-model-coach-review instructional approach on caregiver use of language support strategies and children's expressive language skills. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 57(5), 1851–1869.

Wilhelm, A. G. (2014). Mathematics teachers' enactment of cognitively demanding tasks: Investigating links to teachers' knowledge and conceptions. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 45(5), 636–674.

Wilhelm, A. G., & Andrews-Larson, C. (2016). Why don't teachers understand our questions? Reconceptualizing teachers' "misinterpretation" of survey items. AERA Open, 2(2), 2332858416643077.

Wilhelm, A. G., & Berebitsky, D. (2019). Validation of the mathematics teachers' sense of efficacy scale. Investigations in Mathematics Learning, 11(1), 29–43.

Wilhelm, A. G., & Kim, S. (2015). Generalizing from observations of mathematics teachers' instructional practice using the instructional quality assessment. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 46(3), 270–279.

Proceedings

McEldoon, K. L., Cochrane-Braswell, C., & Rittle-Johnson, B. (2010). Effects of problem context on strategy use within functional thinking. In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (Vol. 32, No. 32).