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Institute of Education Sciences

STATS-DC 2017: Sharing, Learning, and Tweeting

August 9, 2017 NCES Blog Editor General Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Google+

More than 900 people attended the 2017 STATS-DC Data Conference, August 1-3, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC. Sponsored by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), STATS-DC is an annual, free conference designed to provide the latest information, resources and training on accessing and using federal education data.

Educators, statisticians, and researchers from around the country attended the conference and many of them took to Twitter to share what they were learning and seeing. Below is a collection of those Tweets that used the #STATSDC2017 hashtag.

You can view the conference agenda and get more information about STATS-DC on the NCES website. Information about the 2018 conference should be available next spring. 

 

 

Compiled by Dana Tofig, Communications Director, IES

 

IES at the AERA Annual Meeting

April 27, 2017 IES Blog Editor Dissemination, Research Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Google+

By Dana Tofig, Communications Director, IES

The American Educational Research Association (AERA) will hold its annual meeting April 27 through May 1 in San Antonio, Texas. This is one of the nation’s largest educational research conferences and the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will be well represented.

More than 100 sessions at the AERA meeting will feature IES staff or work supported by IES. Below is a brief overview, including links to lists of sessions. You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook to read our #AERA17 posts. 

IES Staff at AERA

IES staff will participate in 20 different presentations, symposia, roundtables, and professional development sessions during the conference, providing information and insight about the wide range of work that we do.

One highlight will be on Sunday, April 30, 10:35 a.m. CT), during a session entitled Research Statistics, and Data: The Vital Role of the Institute of Education Sciences in Retrospect and Prospect. At the session, Thomas Brock, Commissioner of the National Center for Education Research (delegated the duties of IES director), and Peggy Carr, Acting Commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, will be a part of a panel that will discuss the work IES has done over the past 15 years and what the work looks like going forward. They will be joined by other researchers and experts, including Northwestern University’s Larry Hedges, currently the Chair of the National Board for Education Sciences. This session will can be viewed for free via livestream, but you must register in advance.

Other presentations led by or featuring IES staff include sessions about funding opportunities and how to write an application for an IES grant; accessing and using data from NCES and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP); understanding and using international education data, including assessment results; and conversations about different data collections, including race and gender diversity, school-level finance, socioeconomic status and more.

Click here to see a full list of IES staff presentations at AERA.

IES-funded Work at AERA

More than 80 sessions at AERA will feature research and programs that were supported by IES grants and other funding sources. These presentations will cover a wide range of topics, from early childhood education to K-12 to postsecondary opportunities and beyond.

Many of our grantees will present findings from IES-funded research, including the results of IES Research and Development Centers, such as the National Center for Research on Gifted Education, the Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools, the Center for the Study of Adult Literacy, and the Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning.

IES-funded grants will be featured at several other sessions, including eight presentations that will present findings from our Cognition and Student Learning grant program, which builds understanding of how the mind works to inform and improve education practice in reading, writing, mathematics, science, and study skills.

In addition, researchers from several of the Regional Educational Laboratories will present findings on a variety of topics, including early education quality, English learners, teacher evaluations and mobility, college readiness, virtual learning, and much more. 

Also, the National Center for Research in Policy and Practice, an IES-funded Knowledge Utilization Center, will hold several sessions about what they have learned about how educators and policy makers access and use evidence in their decision making.

Click here to see a list of presentations on IES-funded research and programs. 

 

The 2016 PI Meeting: Making it Matter

December 20, 2016 Blog Editor NCER, NCSER, SBIR Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Google+

Hundreds of researchers, practitioners, and education scientists gathered in Washington D.C. for the 2016 IES Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting on December 15 & 16. 

The annual meeting provided an opportunity for attendees to share the latest findings from their IES-funded work, learn from one another, and discuss IES and U.S. Department of Education priorities and programs.

The theme of this year’s annual meeting was Making it Matter: Rigorous Research from Design to Dissemination and the agenda included scores of session that highlighted findings, products, methodological approaches, new projects, and dissemination and communication strategies. The meeting was organized by the two IES research centers—the National Center for Education Research and the National Center for Special Education Research—in collaboration with the three meeting co-chairs: Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, of the University of Delaware; Kathleen Lynne Lane, of the University of Kansas; and Grace Wardhana, CEO of Kiko Labs.

Attendees were active on Twitter, using the hashtag #IESPImtg. Several attendees took the opportunity to highlight why their research matters using a sign and a selfie stick. Below are some Twitter highlights of the 2016 PI meeting.  

 

IES at the APS Annual Convention

May 27, 2016 Blog Editor NCER, NCSER Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Google+

Every Memorial Day weekend, thousands of psychological scientists meet to discuss findings from current research at the Association for Psychological Sciences (APS) annual convention. Representatives and grantees from the two research centers at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will participate in the 28th annual convention, sharing what we are learning about ways to improve education for all learners.

Erin Higgins, the program officer for Cognition and Student Learning program in the National Center for Education Research (NCER), will discuss current IES funding opportunities on Saturday, May 28, at 1 p.m. (Learn more about current IES funding opportunities.)  Dr. Higgins is also chairing a session on Sunday, May 29th at 1 p.m. focused on the role that graphs, diagrams, and other visual representations play in mathematics. This sessions features  NCER grantees Steven Franconeri, Jennifer Cromley, Martha Alibali, and James McClelland.

We want to extend our congratulations to one of our first IES grantees, Robert Bjork, who is delivering one of three APS James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award Addresses. These awards are given for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the area of applied psychological research. The research of award recipients addresses a critical problem in society at large.

More information about which IES grantees are participating in the APS convention is available on the NCER website. If you're tweeting about IES funded work at the conference, please tag @IESResearch. 

Celebrating and Learning with the FPG Institute

May 24, 2016 Blog Editor NCER, NCSER Share on TwitterShare on FacebookShare on Google+

The Franklin Porter Graham Child Development Institute, at the University of North Carolina, is celebrating its 50th year of conducting research, technical assistance, outreach, and service to shape the care and education of young children. This makes its annual symposium, May 24 and 25, 2016, a very special event. The symposium will focus on early care and education; race, ethnicity and cultural diversity; and children with disabilities and their families.

Representatives and grantees from the two research centers at the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) will participate in the conference, sharing what we are learning about ways to improve education for all learners.

Dr. Joan McLaughlin, the commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), will be part of a plenary panel of funding organizations on Wednesday, May 25, at 2:45 p.m., which will focus on considerations for future research activities. (Learn more about current NCSER funding opportunities)

NCSER grantees who are participating in the sessions include Judith Carta, Patricia Snyder, and Samuel Odom.  Grantees who have received funding from the National Center for Education Research are also participating, including  Margaret (Peg) Burchinal and Donna Bryant.

Portions of the conference, Advancing Knowledge, Enhancing Lives: A Vision for Children and Families, are being live-streamed both days.