Inside IES Research

NCSER is grateful for our student interns, who come to us through the U.S. Department of State’s Virtual Student Federal Service Program. These interns are volunteering their time to support NCSER in data science and open science. Data science interns mine data from IES grants and related publications and create visualizations to represent what IES has funded and learned. Open science interns use their talents to help us understand and communicate about research in special education. We are pleased to introduce each of the 2023-24 academic-year interns here.

Data Science Interns

Diamond Andress

I am a PhD student at George Mason University, deeply committed to informing education policy and addressing gaps in the field, particularly concerning individuals with learning disabilities. My academic journey has been profoundly influenced by extensive research experiences at George Mason University and the International Leadership of Texas charter school, where I delved into critical aspects of education policy, including ethnicity, race, bilingual status, SPED/504 status, and student achievement.

My ultimate career aspiration is to become an educational researcher specializing in enhancing student achievement and advocating for policy reforms. I am particularly drawn to this internship opportunity with NSCER/IES due to my unyielding passion for data-driven solutions in education. This internship provides a unique platform for me to gain hands-on experience in analyzing data and collaborating with experts, which are instrumental in uncovering systematic educational gaps and contributing to policy enrichment.

Fun Fact: I find solace in the art of photography and the enrichment of travel experiences. My collection of SD cards holds cherished moments from my international teaching endeavors in Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, and Guinea, underscoring my broader commitment to fostering inclusive and equitable education for all.

Kevin Navarrete-Parra

I am a PhD student studying political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where I take part in rewarding research methods and data science education every semester. My exposure to quantitative research began long before graduate school. I started this journey by taking my first research methods class and working as a research assistant as an undergraduate student. Once I officially enrolled in graduate school, the data science bug bit me—I felt compelled to learn as much as possible about the fascinating world of data and research! This passion and my cumulative experience handling data prepared me for the NCSER data science internship.

My goal for the future is to refine my data science skills so I can work with data that make tangible impacts on the world around me—a plan I am one step closer to achieving thanks to this fantastic opportunity with NCSER. Indeed, this is precisely why I applied to this program: I know that by supporting NCSER's rigorous research program, I can make a difference in something that is pressing and important.

Fun Fact: I love watches. I recently began collecting watches, but my horological passion started years ago when I got my first Timex in high school.

Marissa Kuehn

I am a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Toledo. I am pursuing bachelor’s degrees in disability studies and data science, with a minor in computer science. Previously I have conducted and presented research on understanding the neurodiversity paradigm and movement. I was the recipient of the Patricia Murphy Scholarship from the disability studies department, and I am the co-founder and president of the university’s Disability Student Union. My past work experience as a research assistant on the Plain Truth Project, coursework in data science, lived experience of disability, and long-time passion for disability justice led me to this internship.

I am excited to apply my developing data science skills and passion to learn more about disability research and improve my research skills throughout this internship. I am interested in improving the representation of the disability community in data science and making data more accessible. This internship will allow me to synthesize my data science and disability studies skills and enabling me to seek out more opportunities to do so in the future.

Fun Fact: I am a Trekkie! My favorite characters are Seven of Nine and Data.

Open Science/Communication Interns

Shanna Bodenhamer

Howdy! I am finishing up my last year as a PhD student in educational psychology with an emphasis in special education at Texas A&M University (whoop!). Prior to starting my PhD program, I had various roles in the public school system, working as a special education teacher, a board-certified behavior analyst providing behavioral training and support to teachers, and a program facilitator overseeing the implementation of a state-funded autism grant for an early childhood intervention program. After graduation, I would like to be a faculty member in higher education. 

I’m returning as a second-year virtual intern with NCSER because I learned so much during my previous internship. It gave me the opportunity to speak with researchers across the nation about their research projects and how this work can improve the experiences of students with disabilities. I was able to share this research through social media and blog posts, ensuring that evidence-based practices are accessible to everyone, especially key stakeholders. I’m excited to be part of all the great things happening at NCSER and look forward to another year!

Fun Fact: I like to spend time at the lake with my family. Sometimes we wakesurf, but mostly, we just relax and float around. Luke, our Labrador, loves to swim in the water, but our puggle, Leia, prefers to sunbathe on the boat!

Skyler Fesagaiga

I am pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at the University of California, San Diego, where I plan to develop my quantitative research skills to participate in special education policy analysis. Before attending graduate school, I worked as a licensed behavioral therapist and as a research assistant at Southern Utah University on a project that evaluated parental empowerment with children with disabilities before and after the introduction of elementary school.

With my research interests, IES was a perfect fit for me. Through this internship I hope to develop refined verbal and written communication skills that support my future goals and learn as much as possible about special education research through exposure to IES-funded projects. I plan to further my education as a doctoral student to reach my long-term goal of becoming an expert in inequality and social policy in education. 

Fun Fact: I enjoy collecting rings with different types of gemstones from antique stores! 

Sarah Brasiel, NCSER program officer and primary mentor for the data science interns, and Amy Sussman, NCSER program officer and primary mentor for the open science interns, produced this blog.

In honor of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Awareness Month, we would like to share an interview with Dr. Gregory Fabiano, who has been investigating the enhancement of Individual Education Programs (IEPs) for children with ADHD using daily report cards (DRC). The DRC provides a way to provide feedback to students, parents, and teachers on behavioral and social IEP goals on a daily basis. In the interview below, Dr. Fabiano shares how ADHD impacts student outcomes and how linking the DRC to IEP goals can improve social and academic outcomes above and beyond what an IEP alone can do.

What do we already know about how ADHD impacts academic and social outcomes in children in elementary school? How does this motivate your own research?

Like all people, individuals with ADHD have areas of strengths and weaknesses. If you wanted to create a situation where a person with ADHD is more likely to demonstrate weaknesses, you would likely construct a situation like an academic classroom—long periods of time where individuals are asked to complete rote tasks, attend to lectures, and follow strict rules about where they should be, what they can say, and when they can say it. The situation is highly likely to exacerbate challenges with staying on task and being productive. Through our team’s work with so many children with ADHD, we have seen first-hand how hard their caregivers and teachers work to support them and the good they can do when they are successful. That is why we are motivated to develop approaches to help every child with ADHD who may struggle in school.

The DRC has been used with students with ADHD for a while now. What can you tell us of the history of this intervention?

The DRC has been around since the 1960s when it was used by scholars such as Jon Bailey and colleagues at the University at Kansas and then by Dan and Sue O’Leary and their graduate student Bill Pelham at Stony Brook University. Since that time, the DRC has been disseminated to schools. It has the advantage of being practical and easy to understand across caregivers, educators, and the child. Throughout its use over the past 50 years, it has always included the same active ingredients: (1) clearly specified behavioral goals with objective criteria for meeting goals (for example, completes assigned work within time given, has no more than three instances of interruptions during the science lesson); (2) provision of progress feedback throughout the day; (3) daily communication between the teacher, caregiver, and child by sending the report home; and (4) contingent rewards provided at home for goals achieved.

What does a DRC introduce to a child’s IEP that can improve academic and social outcomes relative to an IEP without a DRC? 

Research, including our own work, has suggested that IEPs for children with ADHD may under-represent social/behavioral goals and objectives. They are even less effective at providing specific, ongoing evidence-based interventions for a student with ADHD. When the DRC is linked to IEP goals and objectives on a daily basis, educators and others are better able to focus their own attention on the most important areas of need. Further, it is flexible enough to quickly add worthy goals that may not have been on the IEP.

We think that the DRC is especially important at the elementary school level, where school is a particularly formative educational experience. We emphasize positive daily goals and contingent rewards for meeting goals. And because the DRC is implemented just for the one day, students start with a clean slate at the onset of each school day.

What impact do you hope that your study of the DRC intervention will have on the field, and for students with ADHD and their IEPs in particular?

One of the sobering findings of our IES-funded study was that the comparison group, which included special education as usual, did not improve in the main outcomes assessed at the end of the year. This leads our team to believe that we need to do much more to support students with ADHD on a daily and ongoing basis, beyond simply drafting an IEP. Because most students with ADHD spend the majority of their day in general education settings, even if they have an IEP, the DRC serves as a bridge to promote continuity and consistency of behavioral support across school personnel and across school days.

Is there anything else you would like to share about your project? 

It is important to note that some children with ADHD progress through school and find their footing successfully in college and/or career. Yet, we know from long-term follow-up studies that the educational outcomes for many with ADHD are poor. These outcomes do not occur suddenly, but instead are caused by the accumulation of negative school experiences. It is important to acknowledge that establishing an IEP alone is unlikely to influence these negative outcomes. It is the everyday support and intervention received by the child with ADHD in the classroom that makes the difference. Caregivers, educators, and the child must work together daily to make progress, celebrate successes, and problem solve to address any continued areas of need. The DRC is one way to do this and we are hopeful the field will continue to develop innovative ways to support individuals with ADHD using a competency-building approach.

This blog was authored by Skyler Fesagaiga, a Virtual Student Federal Service intern for NCSER and graduate student at the University of California, San Diego. Jackie Buckley, NCSER program officer, manages this grant.

The Pathways to the Education Sciences Research Training Program was designed to inspire students from groups that have been historically underrepresented in doctoral study to pursue careers in education research. In recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), we asked Carrissa Ammons, an alumna of the California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) Pathways training program, to share her experiences as a student-researcher with low vision.

What sparked your interest in education research?

My interest in education research stems from my own lived educational experiences as a formerly impoverished person who was born with a visual impairment. My innate passion for understanding the world around me motivated me to continue learning, and my intrinsic curiosity drew me towards the sciences at a rather young age. Over time, I became interested in psychology, and I entered college with the goal of becoming a clinical psychologist. However, my exposure to research methods and applied research experiences within the Cultural and Community Lab at CSUS gave me the confidence to pursue a career as a researcher. Now, I want to use my knowledge and work to help reduce barriers to education for individuals who have not been historically represented within education and the social sciences.

What was your favorite experience as a Pathways fellow?

My Pathways summer internship at the Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) has been an invaluable part of my professional and personal development. The internship was challenging at times but also incredibly fulfilling. All of the SCOE staff I worked with were supportive and gave me great insight into how the state values and uses evidence-based decision making and evaluation. During my 10-week internship, I assisted with a variety of projects, including evaluations for programs relating to bullying prevention, underage substance use prevention and intervention, and California National History Day. I also helped complete a literature review on evidence-based practices in recruiting and retaining diverse teacher candidates for the SCOE internal education career pipeline program.

I learned that researchers who work for state organizations must excel at communicating their findings to both technical and non-technical audiences because they are often tasked with communicating data to individuals with little to no background in research, and because they heavily rely on data visualization as a means of disseminating information in a way that is easy to digest for a diverse array of audiences.

What have been some challenges or barriers you have faced in academia as a person with low vision?

Transportation and inequitable access to written and visual information have been the most salient barriers to education that I have faced during my academic career. I am unable to obtain a driver’s license in most states due to the level of my visual impairment, so I am often dependent on public transportation. While I am incredibly grateful for the increased freedom that I have been granted by the Sacramento Regional Transit, some areas of their system can still be a bit inconsistent—it can be difficult, if not impossible at times, to make impromptu changes to my weekly routines. This structural restriction to my mobility has made it difficult to participate in events and activities outside of certain time frames and areas, and this can evoke a lot of anxiety and aversions for me as I try to fully participate in academic experiences and extra-curricular activities.

For example, reaching the CSUS campus from my home via transit requires a transfer from a bus to the light rail and onto another bus. This process takes approximately 1 hour and 40 minutes from door to door for a trip that would typically take approximately 20 minutes by car. If an issue arose during any leg of this trip (such as a late or canceled bus), it could set me back an hour or more depending on the time of day. This has caused me to miss entire classes and events at times. Alongside the stress of arriving places on time, relying on the public transit system as one’s sole means of transportation can be incredibly taxing mentally at the end of the day. There were many times during my evening commute home from college when the bus on the last leg of my trip would be canceled for the evening due to a driver shortage, forcing me to either ask a loved one or use a rideshare service (which as a student was not always financially feasible). 

Having low vision has also been a barrier throughout my education; however, major advancements in accessible technology during my college years have provided me with more equitable access to visual information. There are some environments, such as academic conferences, where I still struggle to gain access to the same quality of experience as my fully sighted peers. For example, academic poster sessions are environments that require a lot of reading, and for individuals to be able to quickly scan information in order to get the most out of the limited time provided for each session. While most presenters are happy to explain their work to their onlookers, it can still be difficult at times to get the full picture of their work without being able to fully examine all the components of their posters, such as charts or tables.

One easy way presenters and conferences can disseminate information in a more equitable way is to include tools like QR codes on visual material to allow individuals to view them in ways that may be most accessible to them. Academic organizations can also make more of an effort to assess the needs of their members prior to conferences, rather than assuming that everyone with a disability will be able to advocate and accommodate for themselves prior to the event, especially those that claim to be student-friendly organizations. Learning to navigate new spaces can be difficult enough, let alone having to do so while having physical or mental traits that were not considered during the planning and implementation of these events.

What advice would you give students with disabilities who wish to pursue a career in education research?

I wish all students with disabilities could recognize that the concept of disability is a byproduct of living in a society that was not built with us in mind, and those traits do not reflect any deficit in our personal ability to achieve our dreams. It may be difficult at times, but never forget that representation is the only way we, as a scientific community, can achieve the fullest picture of the human experience and push the needle closer to creating an inclusive society for everyone, including ourselves. Despite being faced with myriad historic and contemporary barriers to inclusion and belonging within our society, we have always been here, we will always be here, and our voices deserve to be included in conversations pertaining to education and human development.

Carrissa Ammons recently graduated from California State University, Sacramento with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. As part of her Pathways fellowship at CSUS, Carissa conducted research with Dr. Lisa Romero on the efficacy of motivated self-regulation theory in mitigating implicit biases of college level educators. This summer, Carissa served as a data analysis and visualization intern at the Sacramento County Department of Education’s Center for Student Assessment and Program Accountability. Carissa is currently applying to graduate school and says her ultimate career goal is to become a professor of psychology and run her own research lab with a focus on studying diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging within higher education, with an emphasis on personal identity and stereotype threat.

This NDEAM blog post was produced by Katina Stapleton (Katina.Stapleton@ed.gov), Program Officer for the Pathways to the Education Sciences Research Training program.

On August 23, 2023, WestEd research and policy experts presented at a briefing focused on strengthening adult education and career pathways for Senate staff in Washington, DC. hosted by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME). The briefing drew from research and development WestEd is conducting for both IES (Adult Numeracy in the Digital Era: Adaptive Technology for Quantitative and Digital Literacy, ANDE) and the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (Adult Numeracy Instruction 2.0), as well as WestEd’s experience building and managing statewide adult education and postsecondary longitudinal dashboards and leading technical assistance on building data-informed accelerated pathways to living wage careers for adult learners.

NCER program officer Meredith Larson asked WestEd’s Dr. Ann Edwards about this briefing and how she understands the role of researchers and research in communicating with policymakers. As the principal investigator on the ANDE grant, Dr. Edwards has been involved in recent work in adult education and provided some context for the briefing and the work that was discussed.

How did this briefing come about?

Senators Jack Reed (D-RI) and Todd Young (R-IN) recently signaled their commitment to strengthening adult education by introducing the Strengthening Research in Adult Education Act. To deepen their understanding about the current state of research in the field, the co-chairs of the Senate Adult Literacy Caucus, Senators Reed and Collins (R-ME), co-hosted this briefing and asked WestEd to share what we are learning with a bipartisan group of Senate staff.

What were some of the main points made at the briefing?

We covered many topics, but we presented our interpretation of existing evidence. Some of our comments included the following:

• Much of the existing research on adult education is outdated or sparse. Existing research tends to focus on adult learning broadly or on adult learners in other contexts, with less attention paid to the unique educational needs and goals of learners in adult education programs. For example, some adult learners enroll in programs to pass a test for a job, continue their education, or improve their English language skills. These learner-centric goals aren’t always the focus of the research.
• Moving forward, we can build more knowledge of adult education by investing in studies that are situated in the actual adult education settings that adult learners can, and do, access. For example, much of our knowledge about how adults might learn and appropriate instructional practices for them draws from K-12 and higher education systems rather than the adult education system.
• When thinking about how to improve the adult education system, it’s important to understanding which strategies work for learners in adult education programs who face a wide range of life experiences as they balance jobs and family responsibilities. We need to consider the range of reasons they access programs and how these needs are changing. For example, in addition to foundational skills in numeracy and literacy (reading, writing, language), digital literacy is increasingly important for adult learners as they seek to achieve high school equivalency and look to engage in the workforce.
• Investing in research could help us modify and strengthen programs. We have seen how effective something like a research network (for example, the IES-funded CREATE Adult Skills Network) can be for rapidly generating new insights that can strengthen adult learning.
• We also identified a few specific areas where more research is necessary and could be key to adult education:
  • strengthening the adult educator workforce
  • identifying and applying literacy, numeracy, and English as a Second Language instructional practices developed specifically for adult learners
  • understanding promising models and instructional strategies that can be scaled across the adult education system
  • measuring short- and long-term outcomes of adult education programs
  • exploring the use of artificial intelligence to strengthen teaching and learning for adult learners

• To this end, there is room for strengthening adult education data collections that are connected to federal reporting and accountability systems. The adult education system needs rigorous and reliable data and research to know accurately what works for adult learners and what improvements are needed.

Why do you feel this sort of communication is important?

We hope that briefings can help congressional staff better understand the complexities of the adult education system and the uniqueness of this population. Additionally, we wanted to emphasize for policymakers the limits of existing research on adult learners. Because federal reporting requirements often dictate which data are collected, we wanted to suggest ways the federal government could improve data collection, integration, and reporting. We also wanted to underscore and illustrate how research, policy, and practice are connected in efforts to enhance adult education outcomes. Sharing our research and insights with Senate staffers can help inform their decisionmaking by grounding policy in research, and we believe that can help to improve outcomes and increase opportunities for the economic mobility of this often overlooked population.

Do you have any plans for future conversations with policymakers?

Yes, we plan to stay connected to policymakers and look forward to future opportunities to contribute our insights on research and policy. As Congress takes on new opportunities such as the Strengthening Adult Education Research Act or the reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), we hope they will turn to researchers and practitioners to learn about what is working in the field and how research can inform progress.

This blog was produced by Meredith Larson (Meredith.Larson@ed.gov), research analyst and program officer for postsecondary and adult education, NCER.

This final post in our series of NCSER blogs highlighting the recently funded Early Career Development and Mentoring Grants Program principal investigators features an interview with Sara Estrapala, assistant research professor in special education at the University of Missouri, Columbia. Dr. Estrapala is conducting research aimed at improving self-regulation of high school students with disabilities and challenging behavior.

How did you become interested in research on self-regulation among high school students with disabilities? 

I worked in a high school as a special education paraeducator prior to my doctoral program and really enjoyed working with that student population. I was responsible for helping students manage themselves in their general education classes. This experience led me to wonder whether there were ways to teach students—particularly those with challenging behaviors— to be more self-sufficient. When I started my doctoral program, I worked on an IES-funded project to develop a self-monitoring app and witnessed the incredible impact that self-monitoring can have on student classroom behaviors. My classroom and research experiences merged into a line of research on self-regulation development for high school students with disabilities.

What is the broader challenge in education that you hope your study will address?

High schools are notoriously difficult settings in which to conduct behavior intervention research, due to increased demands on student and teacher time for academics, organizational complexity (for example, multiple teachers, classrooms, academic departments), and misconceptions about behavior supports for high school aged students. As such, there is a relatively limited literature base for researchers and practitioners related to behavior interventions or supports for high school students. I hope to develop an effective intervention specifically for this context and developmental level while also learning how to effectively conduct rigorous research in this complex and challenging environment. Ultimately, I aim to contribute to our collective knowledge about how to help support high school students with disabilities and challenging behavior. 

What sets apart your self-regulation intervention from other interventions that have been studied?

The most unique aspect of the self-regulation intervention that I am developing is that students have ownership over their self-regulation plan. Typically, students are provided with a self-regulation or self-management plan that is developed by an adult—such as their teacher, counselor, or behavior specialist—with very little opportunity for input. Because self-regulation interventions involve a lot of decisions (such as identifying target behaviors, goals, self-monitoring, and self-evaluation plans), there are numerous opportunities to ask students what they think will improve their classroom behavior. My goal is to develop a framework for teaching students how to identify and define their own behaviors that might be reducing their learning or classroom performance as well as replacement behaviors that will enable them to achieve greater academic success. I believe that including students in the decision-making process will help them better learn why self-regulation is important and how it can help them reach meaningful goals.

What advice do you have for other early career researchers?

Network. Network. Network. Find a variety of colleagues to work with, including those with similar and advanced years of research and practice. I find working with other researchers helps prevent feeling isolated and increases my motivation to keep pushing forward. Joining professional organizations and attending their social events has helped me meet peers with similar research experience and create a network for collaboration. This process also created opportunities for me to meet the faculty mentors of my peers, which, in turn, has helped me establish a larger network of mid- and late-career researchers.

Sara Estrapala demonstrates passion and insight in her research promoting self-regulation among high school students with disabilities. NCSER looks forward to following her career trajectory and the development of this exciting project.

This blog was produced by Emilia Wenzel, NCSER intern and graduate student at University of Chicago. Katherine Taylor is the program officer for NCSER’s Early Career Development and Mentoring program.