Partnering in Education Research (PIER): An Interdisciplinary Predoctoral Training Program

Harvard University's Partnering in Education Research (PIER) training program, originally funded by IES in 2015, is designed to train doctoral students to conduct quantitative education policy analysis and to conduct collaborative research with education agencies. PIER is primarily housed within the Graduate School of Education and the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) and also includes faculty and students from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the Kennedy School.

Over the course of the 5-year grant, PIER will offer approximately 30 doctoral students 2- or 3-year PIER fellowships. The program will recruit fellows three cohorts of fellows. The fellows who enter the training program after 1 year of doctoral study will receive 3 years of PIER funding. Fellows that enter the training program after 2 years of doctoral study receive 2 years of PIER funding. All PIER fellowships will include tuition and benefits, a stipend, and a small research fund.

PhD students in PIER will participate in an interdisciplinary coordinated curriculum consisting of coursework in quantitative methodology, psychometric methods, experimental research design, program evaluation, and education policy. Fellows will participate in ongoing research apprenticeships with faculty mentors (1 to 2 years) and a 1-year policy internship with a school district or state education agency. The training program also includes an ongoing interdisciplinary seminar on conducting education research and a public speaker series followed by a "Director's Cut" in which the fellows discuss challenges the speakers faced in conducting their research.

The total projected costs of the training program are approximately $5.05 million. In addition to the grant from IES, Harvard will be contributing approximately $463,000 to cost-share fellows' expenses.