$4.56 Million for Multidisciplinary Doctoral Student Training

GSE will receive $4.56 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES) for a new, multidisciplinary doctoral student training program for education researchers.

The initiative involves six Penn schools and up to six public school districts in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Led by Penn GSE’s Professor Rebecca Maynard, an economist and education and social researcher, the goal of the program is to provide Ph.D. student fellows with comprehensive training in education and education research, and grounded experience in collaborative, faculty-supervised, field-based research in partner school districts and research centers. By the time they complete the program, students will take part in at least one research project that uses an experimental design and at least one multi-methods project. The program is open to students from across the University who have completed at least one year of doctoral studies—fellows will receive generous financial support which will enable them to focus on their studies and mentored research.

The five-year grant is one of ten awarded by IES to encourage high-quality scientifically based education research that will inform evidence-based educational policy.

“Fellows in this program will be actively engaged in field-based projects that both serve as hands-on training opportunities and contribute findings of importance to the partner schools, as well as to the wider education research community,” says Dr. Maynard, the project’s principal investigator. “This grant will enable us to transform the graduate training we offer our doctoral students here at Penn, providing financial and academic support for innovative, interdisciplinary training of Ph.D. students in the skills necessary to generate rigorous evidence to guide future education practice and policy.”