October 2012 

1. Division H Program. The Program Committee met last week to do the major
work on assembling the Division H program for AERA 2013 in San Francisco.
We had a total of 344 submissions (316 papers and 28 symposia), up a
little from last year. (Submissions by section: 91, Section 1, 124, Section
> 2, 95, Section 3, 34, Section 4.) Notification of acceptances and
rejections will be sent the end of October. The program will be available
for review next February.

In order to continue to inform next year's call for proposals, the Program
Committee analyzed submissions for such things as: adequate coverage of
current and emerging issues, how well submissions fit into our current 4
sections, and whose voices are being heard/are there any voices being left
out? We'll report the results when they are ready.

In addition to the sessions created through the submission process, we
will have the Business/Breakfast meeting on Tuesday April 30 (remember that
2013 in San Francisco runs from Saturday, April 27 to Wednesday, May 1),
three graduate student/early career sessions (the Orientation Session,
Graduate Student Poster Session, and Fireside Chat), and three VP invited
sessions.

The three VP sessions are:

Poverty and Education: From Research to Action and Empowerment
(Affirmative Action Committee; Debora Ortloff and Winona Vesey)

Poverty and Performance: International Perspectives on the Relationship of
Socio-Economic Status and Assessment Outcomes (International Committee;
Whitney Bortz and Brucu Kaniskan)

A joint session with the Directors of Research and Evaluation (DRE) and
National Association of Test Directors (NATD)

Thank you to Toni Stroter (Chair), Rosanne Brown (Assistant Chair),
Nyambura Susan Maina (Section 1 Chair), Brett Campbell, Section 2 Chair),
Evelyn Belton-Kocher (Section 3 Chair), Zollie Stevenson (Section 4 Chair),
Marissa del Campo (Senior GS Rep), Winona Vesey (Affirmative Action
liaison), and Whitney Bortz (International Committee liaison).

2. Early Career and Graduate Student Mentorships. Toni Stroter (Committee
Chair) has completed awarding mentorships for 2012. Each awardee receives
up to $1000 to cover expenses. Awards were given to:

2a.  (Early Career) Cheng-Fei Lai, Ph.D. Department of Educational
Methodology, Policy, and Leadership at the University of Oregon and
(Mentor) Jack Monpas-Huber, Ph.D., the Director of Assessmentand Student
Information at Shoreline Public Schools in Shoreline, Washington.

2b. Ipek Ozer, Doctoral Candidate at Kent State University and (Mentor)
Donald Yarbrough, Profession and Director of the Center for Evaluation and
Assessment at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa.

2c. (Early Career) Whitney Wall Brortz, Director of Assessment at Radford
University in Radford, Virginia, and (Mentor) Nina Salcedo Potter, Director
of Assessment and Accreditation at San Diego State Unversity in San Diego,
California.

2d. Vivian Evans, Doctoral Candidate at Jackson State University and
(Mentor) Vickie L. Cartwright, Ph.D., Senior Director of Accountability,
Research, and Assessment at Orange County Public School District in
Orlando, Florida.

2e. Zachary B. Warner, Doctoral Candidate at the University of Albany,
SUNY, and (Mentor) Vickie L. Cartwright, Ph.D., Senior Director of
Accountability, Research, and Assessment at Orange County Public School
District in Orlando, Florida.

3. Division H Officer Nominations. The Nominations Committee (Faith
Connolly) has completed its work. Nominations are:

DIVISION H VICE PRESIDENT (3 YEAR TERM) - 2014-2017

* Vickie Cartwright - [email protected]
* Paul Favaro - [email protected]
* Zollie Stevenson - [email protected]

DIVISION H SECRETARY (2 YEAR TERM) - 2014-2016

* Evelyn Belton-Kocher - [email protected]
* Brad McMillen- [email protected]
* Shahpar Modarresi - [email protected]

4. Big Issues in Testing Conference: Improving Admissions and Learning in
Higher Education. Buros Center for Testing is sponsoring a conference on
testing issues in higher education, March 28-29th, 2013  -  Lincoln, NE. A
list of presenters and topics can be found at
http://buros.org/big-issues-testing.

5. Job Announcement. The Chief of the Office of Data and Accountability
(ODA),  DC Public Schools (DCPS).  The full position description can be
accessed here:
http://dcps.dc.gov/DCPS/About+DCPS/Career+Opportunities/Support+Our+Schools
/View+All+Jobs/Chief,+Data+and+Accountability

6. AERA News 

6a. Volunteer for AERA Committees. If you are interested please send our
in-coming President, Barbara Sneider ([email protected]) the name of
the candidate, the committee on which the individual is willing to serve,
and a one-page biographical vitae. A description of AERA committees is
available at aera.net.

6b. AERA Deadlines. Get more information about the following at the
aera.net.

Fellows Nominations: October 4, 2012
AERA Award Nominations: October 15, 2012

6c. AERA Event on Filed Amicus Brief, Fisher v. University Of Texas,
Austin. AERA, with co-sponsors American Sociological Association, American
Statistical Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, Law
and Society Association, and Linguistic Society of America held a  media
briefing to discuss the AERA amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court on
Fisher v. University of Texas, Austin. The briefing outlined scientific
evidence on the use of race as one factor in the University’s admissions
policy and issues relevant to this critically important higher education
case scheduled for hearing on October 10, 2012

More information is available on the AERA website on the front page and on
the dedicated portal for the case and the AERA et al. at
ttp://www.aera.net/tabid/13333/Default.aspx

7. IES Proposes New Program of Research; Invites Comments. The National
Center for Education Research in the Institute of Education Sciences is
planning a new research program for Fiscal Year 2014, one that will focus
on the application of improvement sciences and continuous improvement
research in education. H'ers should want to know about this exciting new
direction and may want to comment to IES about it. The program description
and request for commentary can be found at:

http://ies.ed.gov/funding/comment_CIRE.asp

VP Announcements - September 2012 
1. Conference Submissions. The 2013 annual meeting is in San Francisco,
Saturday, April 27 - Wednesday, May 1. Proposals are now being reviewed.
Sessions will be created in September and October. Official notification of
acceptances and rejections occurs November 1. Please contact our Program
Committee Chair ([email protected]) or Assistant Chair
([email protected]) if you have questions.

2. Renew Division H Memberships. Rolf Blank ([email protected]) and Colleen
G. Paeplow ([email protected]), Co-chairs of the Membership Committeesay:
Hello Division H members! We hope you have had a great summer and your
school year is starting off smoothly.  The Division H Membership committee
would like to remind you to renew your membership for the year (now would be a great time!) 
AND also to forward information about AERA and Division H to people you work with,
colleagues in other locations, and graduate students.  We are working to
maintain and increase our strong membership numbers in Division H this year
and also to reach out to more education researchers that are doing work
with schools and school districts.  We also will appreciate your ideas for
membership outreach! Thanks very much!

3. 2013 Division H Social. The Div H Social Committee has secured a
waterfront restaurant in the shadow of the Bay Bridge for our Tuesday,
April 30 evening social at the annual conference next year in San
Francisco.  Check the Epic Roasthouse website http://www.epicroasthouse.com/ 
for a tantalizing overview of the site, the food and (of course) the views.  
Special thanks to prospector Diana Wilmot, Coordinator of Research and 
Evaluation at Palo Alto Unified.

4. 2013 Division H Booth. Jim Wohlleb ([email protected];
[email protected]) , Booth Committee Chair, would like to begin early to
ask people to help with the booth next year in San Francisco. As you know,
we display submissions for our publication awards in the exhibits area at
the annual conference. We always need volunteers to set up and tear down
the booth, and to man the booth during the conference. Jim will be
circulating sign-up sheets after the first of the year.

Another thing to think about: Since all submissions are now electronic,
might our booth take on a new look by eliminating paper copies of
submissions? Please get in touch with Jim if you have ideas about this.

5. Division H Promo Video. As a reminder, Joe O'Rielly prepared a video
describing Division H. You can find it at http://www.edtv99.org/video/11155.

6. Amicus Brief. AERA has filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court case
of the Fisher vs. University of Texas-Austin which involves affirmative
action regarding admissions. The brief, and related documents, can be found
at http://www.aera.net/tabid/13333/Default.aspx. There are a number of
other professional organizations who signed on to the brief. This is an
important case and AERA would like everyone to get involved in
disseminating information via posts on Facebook and tweets on Twitter.

7. Job Announcement:  Director of the School of Education at Virginia
Tech. The position is advertised on the AERA jobs page
(http://careers.aera.net/c/job.cfm?site_id=557&job=10646001).