Where to Find Updated Information on the Districts in Research and Reform SIG

For updated information on the Districts in Research and Reform SIG, please visit us at our page on the AERA website.

AERA 2014 Districts in Research and Reform SIG Invited Session

Reflections on the Portfolio Reform Model as an Urban District Reform: The Philadelphia Case

Sunday, April 6th - 8:15 to 10:15am
Convention Center, 100 Level, 111B

Featuring an outstanding set of panelists:
• Eva Gold (formerly of Research For Action)
• Paul Kihn (Deputy Superintendent, School District of Philadelphia)
• Robin Lake (Director, Center on Reinventing Public Education)
• Pauline Lipman (University of Illinois at Chicago), and
• Rand Quinn (University of Pennsylvania)

Chaired by Tina Trujillo (University of California, Berkeley)

Scholars, district leaders, policy makers, and community members are looking to Philadelphia’s experiences under the portfolio model of reform. Philadelphia’s experiences can provide lessons for how market mechanisms function within the public school system; how privatized management, charter school conversions, and school closures impact local communities; and how a big-city district manages multiple providers. This invited panel brings together leading experts on the political, cultural, organizational, and technical dimensions of Philadelphia's experiences. They will reflect on the state of the district today, how it has evolved over the last decade, and future implications for Philadelphia’s schools and communities. Each panelist will consider issues that merit further research on this increasingly common urban district reform.

2013 SIG Business Meeting and Speaking Panel

Please join us! During AERA 2013, the Districts in Research and Reform SIG will address annual business matters (awards) and will host invited speakers for a discussion about districts and communities partnering to focus on issues of equity to serve students’ academic and non-academic needs, and the role of researchers in supporting this work.

Districts and Communities:
Centering Equity in Policy, Research, and Reform

2013 AERA Annual Meeting Saturday, April 27, 2013; 6:15 p.m.–7:45 p.m.

Park 55 Hotel, San Francisco, CA Fourth Level - Mission II & III

Light  refreshments  will  be  served

Speakers include:

• Kyla Johnson-Trammell - Associate Superintendent, Leadership, Curriculum, and Instruction Oakland Unified School District
• Jason Willis - Assistant Superintendent, Community Engagement and Accountability San Jose Unified School District
• Warren Simmons - Executive Director, Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University

Please contact the SIG Co-chairs for additional information: Jacob  Mishook  (jacob_mishook@brown.edu) or Kyo Yamashiro (kyo@laeri.org)

Outstanding Dissertation Award Nominations

The Districts in Research and Reform SIG will be honoring a recent doctoral candidate whose dissertation reflects the SIG goals of promoting research that features central office administrators/school board members as main actors in reform or that considers educational reforms and practices that are districtwide in nature. In keeping with this year's conference theme, "Education and Poverty," we particularly encourage dissertations that consider issues of educational inequality.

The award —to be presented at our 2013 AERA Business Meeting in San Francisco— will be given for an outstanding dissertation defended in the past two years (July 2010-August 2012). The individual submitting the nomination will need to forward an electronic copy of his/her dissertation (or three hard copies, if electronic version is unavailable) to the Awards Committee along with the nomination form (attached). Nominators or nominees do not need to be SIG members, but we encourage all to join. We also accept self-nominations.

SIG Executive Board member Tina Trujillo is serving as this year's Awards Chair. Please direct all questions, nominations, and materials to:

Tina M. Trujillo
Graduate School of Education
3649 Tolman Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720
trujillo@berkeley.edu