Date: May 18, 2004
Contact: David Partenheimer
Public Affairs Office
(202) 336-5706

New Postdoctoral Fellowship Program Launched to Address Shortage of Highly Trained Education Researchers

Thirteen Fellow/Mentor Teams Named for Program’s First Year

WASHINGTON — Boosting research on the application of psychological science to education is the goal of a new program that matches early career psychologists with established mentors for intensive school-based research training. The U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has awarded the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Education Directorate $2,070,573 to create the training program, known as APA/IES Postdoctoral Education Research Training (APA/IES PERT). Thirteen psychologists from across the country have been selected for the inaugural group of APA/IES PERT fellows.

APA / IES PERT is designed to build capacity for rigorous research through the application of psychological science to pre K-12 education. Unlike other programs in the field that either provide fellowships directly to students or institutional grants to universities, the PERT program independently solicits applications from mentors and students and employs a matching process that is overseen by an independent advisory board. In addition to being engaged in research training, all fellows will participate in a series of joint activities focused on translating research into practice, learning about large scale research, understanding the education policy arena, building a community of APA/IES scholars, and developing interest in education sciences throughout the graduate education pipeline in psychology.

The PERT program will address a critical need in the area of educational research, according to Institute of Education Sciences Director Grover J. Whitehurst. “We need to foster a new generation of education researchers who are well-trained and capable of conducting scientifically rigorous and educationally relevant studies. Supporting these mentor/fellow pairings is an important step in growing our professional field.”

APA Education Directorate Executive Director Cynthia Belar is also excited about the new program. “Psychology’s scientific knowledge base on learning is fundamental to education in our society. We must prepare more researchers to address the application of this knowledge in our nation’s schools.”

For more information on APA/IES PERT, please contact Gregory White at 202-336-5855 or by Email.

The inaugural group of PERT fellows and their mentors include:

Amy D. Bellmore, Ph.D. (Fellow)
Sandra Graham, Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles (Mentor)

Elise Cappella* (Fellow)
Marc Atkins, Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago (Mentor)

Mari G. Strand Cary* (Fellow)
David Klahr, Ph.D., Carnegie Mellon University (Mentor)

Lisa M. Dinella* (Fellow)
Gary W. Ladd, Ed.D., Arizona State University (Mentor)

Gwen A Frishkoff* (Fellow)
Charles A Perfetti, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh (Mentor)

Bridget K. Hamre, Ph.D. (Fellow)
Robert C. Pianta, Ph.D., University of Virginia (Mentor)

Maria D. LaRusso, Ed.D. (Fellow)
Martin E.P. Seligman, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania (Mentor)

Greta M. Massetti, Ph.D. (Fellow)
William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D., SUNY Buffalo (Mentor)

Beth M. Phillips, Ph.D. (Fellow)
Joseph K. Torgesen, Ph.D., Florida Center for Reading Research (Mentor)

Fredric J. Schreiber, Ph.D. (Fellow)
Susan A. Brady, Ph.D., Haskins Laboratories / University of Rhode Island (Mentor)

Amy B. Silverman, Ph.D. (Fellow)
Gary D. Gottfredson, Ph.D., University of Maryland (Mentor)

Heather K. Warren* (Fellow)
Mark T. Greenberg, Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University (Mentor)

Sasha Yampolsky, Ph.D. (Fellow)
Maryanne Wolf, Ed.D., Tufts University (Mentor)

* Doctorate to be received by August 2004

The American Psychological Association (APA), in Washington, DC, is the largest scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the United States and is the world’s largest association of psychologists. APA’s membership includes more than 150,000 researchers, educators, clinicians, consultants and students. Through its divisions in 53 subfields of psychology and affiliations with 60 state, territorial and Canadian provincial associations, APA works to advance psychology as a science, as a profession and as a means of promoting health, education and human welfare.

The Institute of Education Sciences: On November 5, 2002, President Bush signed into law the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 establishing a new organization, the Institute of Education Sciences. The Institute reflects the intent of the President and Congress to advance the field of education research, making it more rigorous in support of evidence-based education. The Institute consists of the National Center for Education Research, the National Center for Education Statistics, and the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. On November 22, 2002, the President appointed Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst to a six-year term as the first Director of the Institute.