April Galyardt

Carnegie Mellon established the Program in Interdisciplinary Education Research (PIER) with funding from a 2004 IES grant. With the 2009 grant, PIER continued to train scientists to conduct rigorous research on learning conditions related to curriculum, instruction, and assessment to improve academic outcomes for diverse prekindergarten through postsecondary students.

The Carnegie Mellon's Program in Interdisciplinary Research (PIER) aimed to produce scientists qualified to do rigorous research needed for evidence-based educational practice and policy. PIER fellows dealt with the bi-directional flow of ideas and challenges between laboratory studies and instructional applications.