Meeting Co-Chairs

IES enlisted the help of three Co-Chairs - Jose Blackorby (CAST, Inc.), Laura Booker (Tennessee Department of Education), and Beth Tipton (Northwestern University) – to provide input and ideas for this year's meeting, particularly with respect to strengthening the connections between research and practice. With their combined experience and expertise in education and special education research, working in/with state and local education agencies, and research methods and statistics, they have provided invaluable suggestions and feedback on the meeting theme, sessions, and speakers. We are grateful for their contribution.

José Blackorby

Senior Director of Research and Development,
CAST, Inc.
Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)

José Blackorby

Senior Director of Research and Development, CAST, Inc.
Lecturer, Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE)

Bio

José Blackorby is the Senior Director of Research and Development at CAST, Inc. and a lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He has been working to improve outcomes for children and youth with disabilities for more than 20 years. He has led large-scale national studies, designed assessments, developed innovative technology solutions for STEM and higher-order thinking skills, and conducted significant design and experimental research. His current work focuses on next-generation applications of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in instruction and assessments. Current projects include the development of an open source UDL player for Open Educational Resources, an efficacy study of a UDL-based inquiry science notebook called SNUDLE, and a Google application called CORGI to support higher-order thinking skills for struggling learners. In collaboration with UDL-IRN, he provides leadership for the UDL Credentialing and Certification Initiative, which is building an online platform called Learning Designed to provide personalized pathways to micro-credentials for educators, certifications for school buildings, and education technology products. This initiative will contribute to efforts to implement UDL at scale. He has contributed to the field through publications, products, membership on national advisory boards, and higher education teaching at HGSE.

Website:
www.cast.org

Related Sessions

International Ballroom Center Plenary Session: Edtech: The Buzz, the Promise, the Evidence, and the Future
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 3:15 PM - 4:30 PM

DESCRIPTION

Education technology is here to stay, but its full potential has not been realized. Learn about trends, promising applications, the appropriate use of technology, and research challenges in Edtech. What are some current challenges in the field, and how might they be overcome? Are there branches of education or of technology that are frequently overlooked or forgotten when we have these conversations? How can funders, researchers, and developers each contribute to ensure that technology-based tools are both useful and of high quality?

MODERATORS

Elizabeth Albro, Comissioner, National Center for Education Research (NCER), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education
José Blackorby, CAST, Inc.

PRESENTERS

Maithilee Kunda, Vanderbilt University
Krista Marks, Woot Math
Erin Ottmar, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
Nicole Russo-Ponsaran, Rush NeuroBehavioral Center

Laura Neergaard Booker

Director of Research,
Tennessee Department of Education

Laura Neergaard Booker

Director of Research, Tennessee Department of Education

Bio

Laura Neergaard Booker is the Executive Director of Research at the Tennessee Department of Education. She has been with the department's Research and Strategy Team for over five years and currently leads the team that conducts research and acts as broker for several research-practice partnerships. Dr. Booker serves on the steering committee of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance and co-founded the education research podcast, The TNth Period. She earned her doctorate from the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University. Her dissertation focused on instructional practices and supports for beginning middle school math teachers. At Vanderbilt, she was a fellow in the Institute of Education Sciences-funded Experimental Education Research Training program and a research assistant for the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools. Prior to starting her studies at Vanderbilt, Dr. Booker worked as a research associate at the Center for Research in Educational Policy at the University of Memphis and taught second grade through Teach For America.

Twitter
@LauraBookerTN

Website:
The TNth Period: Education Research in Tennessee (podcast)

Related Sessions

International Ballroom Center Plenary Session: Working Together to Better Inform Policy and Practice
Thursday, January 10, 2019 8:30 AM - 10:00 AM

DESCRIPTION

Collaborations among researchers, practitioners, and policymakers are key to improving the utility and influence of education research. In this session, a group of panelists, including a postsecondary researcher and former higher education administrator, early childhood research/practice partners, and an education policy consultant with expertise in special education, will discuss the role of education research in policymaking and practice. Topics of discussion will include examples of and strategies for bridging the worlds of practice, policy, and research; opportunities and challenges around collaboration; and strategies for making research more policy and practice ready.

MODERATORS

Laura Booker, Tennessee Department of Education
Joan McLaughlin, Commissioner, National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER), Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education

PRESENTERS

Alexandra Logue, The City University of New York
Jason Sachs, Boston Public Schools
Christina Weiland, University of Michigan
Jane West, University of Maryland

Jefferson West Why Researcher-Practitioner Partnerships Fail
Thursday, January 10, 2019 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

DESCRIPTION

Research-practice partnerships (RPPs) are a new trend in education research as state and local education agencies look to implement "evidence-based programs" under the Every Student Succeeds Act, and funders, such as IES and foundations, seek to support research with practical impacts. In this session, the research leads for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Tennessee Department of Education summarize what they have learned from their experiences participating in RPPs.

Note: Continue the conversations from this session in the associated lunch meet-up on Evaluating RPPs!

MODERATOR

Allen Ruby, National Center for Education Research (NCER)

PRESENTERS

Laura Booker, Tennessee Department of Education
Carrie Conaway, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
William Penuel, University of Colorado Boulder
Nathaniel Schwartz, Tennessee Department of Education

Elizabeth Tipton

Associate Professor of Statistics,
Northwestern University

Elizabeth Tipton

Associate Professor of Statistics, Northwestern University

Bio

Elizabeth Tipton is an Associate Professor of Statistics at Northwestern University. Her research focuses on the design and analysis of field experiments, with a particular focus on issues of external validity and generalizability in experiments; meta-analysis, particularly of dependent effect sizes; and the use of (cluster) robust variance estimation. She is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) of an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Methods grant to develop software that guides researchers through planning cluster-randomized trials that are both adequately powered and in samples that are generalizable to clearly defined populations. She is also co-PI on an IES Methods training grant (Meta-Analysis Training Institute) that will teach researchers advanced meta-analytic methods each summer for the next three years. Dr. Tipton has received Early Career Awards from the American Psychological Association (2017, Division 5), the Society for Research Synthesis Methods (2017), and the American Education Research Association (2016, Division D). She is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics and is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Psychological Bulletin, and Research Synthesis Methods.

Website:
www.bethtipton.com

Related Sessions

Lincoln West Where Do the Results Generalize? Defining Populations, Developing Recruitment Strategies, and Understanding Heterogeneity in Intervention Research
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 10:15 AM - 11:45 AM

DESCRIPTION

This session will provide practical approaches for addressing concerns with generalizability in intervention research studies. The session will include a framework for generalizability and an overview of The Generalizer, a web tool that helps researchers define a target population and develop a recruitment plan. The session will also include a panel of PIs from current and previous IES-funded studies that have used this approach to discuss their experiences and lessons learned. Finally, the session will include a framework for planning for moderator analyses, including methods for power analysis and interpretation.

Note: Continue the conversations from this session in the associated lunch meet-up on Recruitment of Schools for RCTs!

MODERATOR

Elizabeth Tipton, Northwestern University

PRESENTERS

Leticia Martinez, University of Texas, Austin
Brian Matlen, WestEd
Sara Rimm-Kaufman, University of Virginia
Jessaca Spybrook, Western Michigan University

Lincoln West Lunch Meet-up: Recruitment of Schools in RCTs
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 12:15 PM - 1:15 PM

DESCRIPTION

If you have a Goal 2, 3, or 4 grant, the success of your study hinges on your ability to recruit school districts and schools. At this lunch meet-up, our goal is to share ideas, experiences, and resources for doing recruitment better. This lunch is for both PIs and study teams new to recruitment and for those who are masters. Several veteran researchers with a strong track record of successful recruitment will be in attendance to answer questions and facilitate conversation.

HOST

Elizabeth Tipton, Northwestern University

International Ballroom West Meta-Analysis in Education Research
Thursday, January 10, 2019 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM

DESCRIPTION

The team from the meta-analysis training grant will discuss meta-analytic techniques that can be used to enrich the education research field. Presenters will cover statistical techniques in meta-analysis, important components for designing a meta-analytic study, and a description and results from an IES Education Research grant that features a meta-analysis.

MODERATOR

Phill Gagné, National Center for Education Research (NCER)

PRESENTERS

Terri Pigott, Loyola University Chicago
Elizabeth Tipton, Northwestern University
Ryan Williams, American Institutes for Research