At the front end of a long election season, political rhetoric is rife with contested ideas over policies that will shape this nation’s education system in the years to come. The research of Division L’s members continues to inform the politics and policies of education, while also creating an exciting Division L program for AERA 2016. As we plan for that centennial celebration at April’s conference in Washington, D.C., Lora Cohen-Vogel (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) has dedicated her time with the section chairs to promote the theme for AERA’s 2016 Annual Meeting. Specifically, the theme of AERA this year is on public scholarship to educate diverse democracies and interconnections among research, politics, and social analysis. To support this theme, Lora and the program committee have added two sections: “Social policy and education,” with papers recognizing that research on educational improvement acknowledges the lives of students both inside and outside schools; and “Policy implementation and going to scale,” with papers addressing not only what works, but what works for whom and under what conditions. More specifics on these and the other sections will come in the spring newsletter. Thanks to the entire program committee and all of you who volunteered your time to review proposals. 

By way of other updates: Division L will participate in the David Clark Seminar, which will be held right before AERA, in the interest of furthering the Division’s goal to promote student mentoring. Luis Huerta of Teachers College has graciously agreed to lead this effort. In addition, Marialena Rivera (University of California-Berkeley) and Megan Austin (University of Notre Dame) continue to develop our social media presence to increase opportunities for interaction, dissemination, and impact.

Going forward, please nominate your colleagues for the Division awards to support our mission of recognizing outstanding contributions to the field! Thanks to all of you serving on these and other Division committees.