Project Activities
The University of Pennsylvania Predoctoral Training Program in Interdisciplinary Methods for Field-based Research in Education was first funded by IES in 2005. The current focus of the training program is to prepare fellows to conduct research to inform education policy in collaborative partnerships with education agencies and research firms and strengthen the education research workforce and improve the quality, accessibility, use, and relevance of evaluations to inform policy and practice. The predoctoral training program is a collaborative initiative among the Graduate School of Education, the School of Arts and Sciences, the School of Social Policy and Practice, and the Annenberg School for Communication. Fellows and faculty will be drawn from across the university.
The program will recruit approximately 30 fellows from participating schools and departments for 2- to 3-year fellowships. Prior to acceptance into the program, fellows must complete a year of their department's doctoral program. Each fellowship includes tuition and benefits, a yearly stipend, and a small research and travel fund.
During the training, fellows will participate in an interdisciplinary core curriculum consisting of coursework in quantitative methodology, experimental research design, implementation research and education policy. Fellows will also participate in ongoing research with faculty mentors or research organizations (1 year minimum) and a year-long policy/practice apprenticeship in education agencies or other placements approved by IES. The training program also includes an ongoing interdisciplinary seminar on conducting rigorous, applied education research and methods workshops that complement training available through courses and apprenticeships.
People and institutions involved
IES program contact(s)
Project contributors
Products and publications
Project website:
Publications:
ERIC Citations: Publications available in ERIC are available here.
Adames, A. (2023). The cumulative effects of colorism: Race, wealth, and skin tone. Social Forces, 102(2), 539-560.
Alam, A., & Bowden, A. B. (2024, July). Advancing high school dropout predictions using machine learning. In International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (pp. 334-341). Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland.
Bevan, S. L., & DeWitt, C. C. (2024). Policy and practice innovations in school-based mental health services. Children and Youth Services Review, 166, 107970.
Bowden, A. B., Danks, A., Rodriguez, V., Yang, H., & Davis, R. (2023). Examining State and District Policy and Resource Allocation to Support Digital Learning. Peabody Journal of Education, 98(1), 6-25.
Bowden, A. B., Rodriguez, V., & Weingarten, Z. (2023). The unintended consequences of academic leniency. American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Brown, A., Weiss, E., Suntheimer, N. M., Appiah, R., Aurino, E., & Wolf, S. (2025). Factorial and cultural validity of a social and emotional behavior measure in Northern Ghana. Applied Developmental Science, 1-17.
Bryer, E. (2026). The View from the Top: The Relationship Between Parental Education and Graduate Enrollment. The Journal of Higher Education, 97(1), 119-147.
Bryer, E. (2022). “Not Nearly as Bad”: Social Comparisons and the Debt Experience. Socius, 8, 23780231221121075.
Comstock, M. (2025). Gaps in achievement or opportunity? How achievement gap discourse affects teachers’ beliefs and priorities. Urban Education, 60(7), 2121-2152.
Comstock, M. (2025). A Justice-Oriented System: Practicing Teachers’ Conceptions of and Perceived School and Environmental Supports for Culturally Responsive Instruction. Teachers College Record, 127(1), 153-196.
Comstock, M., Edgerton, A. K., & Desimone, L. M. (2022). Connecting policy to practice: How state and local policy environments relate to teachers’ instruction. Teachers College Record, 124(11), 82-116.
Comstock, M., Edgerton, A. K., & Desimone, L. M. (2021). From Buy-In to Specificity: The Evolution of Standards-Based Reform Implementation in Two States. Grantee Submission.
Comstock, M., Litke, E., Hill, K. L., & Desimone, L. M. (2023). A culturally responsive disposition: How professional learning and teachers’ beliefs about and self-efficacy for culturally responsive teaching relate to instruction. Aera Open, 9, 23328584221140092.
Comstock, M., & Margolis, J. (2025). The case of the model classroom: cognition and authenticity in teacher professional development. Professional Development in Education, 51(5), 943-959.
Comstock, M., Shores, K. A., Litke, E., Desimone, L. M., Polanco, C., & Hill, K. L. (2025). Toward more equitable instruction: How teachers integrate ambitious, traditional, and culturally responsive mathematics practices. AERA Open, 11, 23328584251331463.
Comstock, M., Supovitz, J., & Kaul, M. (2021). Exchange quality in teacher leadership ties: examining relational quality using social network and leader-member exchange theories. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 6(4), 395-409.
Delaney, J. A., & Odle, T. K. (2025). State-level common application policies and college enrollment. Education Finance and Policy, 20(1), 164-177.
Dizon-Ross, E., Falken, G., Goldhaber, D., Lavallee Delgado, P., & Theobald, R. (2026). The Front End of the CTE Teacher Pipeline: Characterizing the Prior Work Experiences of CTE Teachers. AERA Open, 12, 23328584261448134.
Gross, N., Bryer, E., Jacobs, C. E., & Goosby, J. (2024). “Heated, Polarized, and Annoying”: The Characteristics and Consequences of Affective Polarization in Independent High Schools. Democracy & Education, 32(2), 5.
Gurantz, O., & Odle, T. K. (2022). The impact of merit aid on college choice and degree attainment: Reexamining Florida’s Bright Futures program. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 44(1), 79-104.
Hatch, S. F., Gidra, A., Suntheimer, N. M., & Wolf, S. (2026). Parents’ Views of Early Childhood Education: Predictors of Engagement in Ghana. Early Childhood Education Journal, 1-12.
Kaul, M. (2026). Profession or Marketplace? Mapping the Competing Logics of K–12 Teacher Education Reform. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 01623737261437716.
Kaul, M. (2026). The Logics of Teaching: How Institutionalized Ideas about Teaching Shape Teachers’ Professional Identities. Sociology of Education, 99(1), 20-39.
Kaul, M., Comstock, M., & Simon, N. S. (2022). Leading from the middle: How principals rely on district guidance and organizational conditions in times of crisis. Aera Open, 8, 23328584221077303.
Kaul, M., Supovitz, J., & Comstock, M. (2021). Investigating instructional influence in teachers' social networks. Journal of Professional Capital and Community, 6(4), 378-394.
Lee, H. P., Choi, D., Cnaan, R. A., & Handy, F. (2026). Unemployment and prosocial engagement: Behavior changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 55(3), 698-724.
Lee, H. P., & Cnaan, R. A. (2025, September). Mandatory Community Service and Civic Engagement. In Nonprofit Policy Forum (No. 0). De Gruyter.
Lee, H. P., Shiba, K., Cnaan, R. A., & Lee, J. H. (2026). Oral Health and Social Engagement of Older Adults: A Longitudinal Study. Journal of Dentistry, 106689.
Li, C., Suntheimer, N. M., Bailey, D. H., & Wolf, S. (2025). The codevelopment of early social and cognitive skills in Ghana. Developmental Psychology, 61(1), 73.
Lillard, A. S., Loeb, D., Berg, J., Escueta, M., Manship, K., Hauser, A., & Daggett, E. D. (2025). A national randomized controlled trial of the impact of public Montessori preschool at the end of kindergarten. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122(43), e2506130122.
Mielke, M. (2024). Assessing Aftercare Reforms in Pennsylvania’s Juvenile Justice System. Crime & Delinquency, 70(10), 2803-2825.
Odle, T. K., Bae, J. Y., & González Canché, M. S. (2023). The effect of the uniform bar examination on admissions, diversity, affordability, and employment across law schools in the United States. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 45(3), 520-529.
Odle, T. K., & Delaney, J. A. (2022). You are admitted! Early evidence on enrollment from Idaho’s direct admissions system. Research in Higher Education, 63(6), 899-932.
Odle, T. K., Lee, J. C., & Gentile, S. P. (2021). Do promise programs reduce student loans? Evidence from Tennessee Promise. The Journal of Higher Education, 92(6), 847-876.
Odle, T. K., & Monday, A. B. (2021). Spending more or spending less? Institutional expenditures and staffing in the free-college era. AERA Open, 7, 23328584211034491.
Odle, T. K., & Russell, L. C. (2023). The impact of reverse transfer associate degrees on education and labor market outcomes. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 42(3), 648-676.
Suntheimer, N. M., & Wolf, S. (2024). Duration of poverty and Ghanaian children’s learning and executive function outcomes. Applied Developmental Science, 28(3), 409-425.
Suntheimer, N. M., Ju, S. G., McCoy, D. C., Wolf, S., Abate, S., Mekonnen, A., ... & Demlew, T. (2025). Parent psychological distress and beliefs about nurturing care: Associations with parent investments and early child development in Ethiopia. Developmental Psychology, 61(7), 1342.
Suntheimer, N. M., Wolf, S., Sulik, M. J., Avornyo, E. A., & Obradović, J. (2022). Executive function mediates the association between cumulative risk and learning in Ghanaian schoolchildren. Developmental Psychology, 58(8), 1500.
Wolf, S., Aurino, E., Suntheimer, N. M., Avornyo, E. A., Tsinigo, E., Behrman, J. R., & Aber, J. L. (2022). Medium-term protective effects of quality early childhood education during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. Child Development, 93(6), 1912-1920.
Wolf, S., Bernard, J., Ezeugwu, C. R., Ahmad, L., & Bello Gurin, K. (2025). Impacts of the Preschool Safe Program on Marginalized Girls in Northern Nigeria. Child Development, 96(3), 1128-1147.
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