Lynch School of Education Professor Maria Estela Brisk, an internationally recognized expert in bilingual education and literacy development, was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 100th annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA).
AERA鈥檚 Bilingual Education Research Special Interest Group presented the award to Brisk for her dedication to research, teaching and service in the field.
鈥淚t鈥檚 very moving,鈥� said Brisk, who came to 51茶馆 in 1999 after 24 years at Boston University. 鈥淚鈥檓 not the type who does things for reputation or prestige. So it feels good to be recognized after working non-stop all my life. But I鈥檓 not through yet.鈥�
In addition to Brisk, Professor Ana Mart铆nez Alem谩n received the 2016 Outstanding Publication Award from colleagues in post-secondary education research for Critical Approaches to the Study of Higher Education, a book she co-edited.
Brisk and聽Mart铆nez Alem谩n were among the 30 Lynch School faculty and 60 students who attended AERA 2016, the largest annual worldwide gathering of education research scholars. The theme of this year鈥檚 meeting was 鈥淧ublic Scholarship to Educate Diverse Democracies.鈥澛�
Faculty presented research on a range of topics, including teacher education, education policy, higher education, counseling and developmental and educational psychology.
Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools Marilyn Cochran-Smith and her research team shared the results of their recent study of the four leading systems used to evaluate teacher preparation programs. The team found the systems lack evidence-based policies in their core designs, raising questions about the validity of methods used to assess thousands of prospective teachers and hundreds of college and university programs that prepare them.
鈥淎lthough these accountability policies demand that teacher education programs make decisions based on evidence, the policies themselves are not evidence-based,鈥� said Cochran-Smith. 鈥淲e concluded there is good reason to question their validity as policy instruments that will improve teacher education quality and teacher quality.鈥澛�(.)
Professor Diana Pullin discussed an evaluation of the Washington, DC, public schools, which she helped complete last year for the National Research Council.
Associate Professor Patrick J. McQuillan spoke about his research, 鈥淲orking Across Three Sectors: Catholic, District, and Charter School Principals Enacting Adaptive Change,鈥� which examines how school leaders from the public, charter and parochial school sectors approach school change initiatives.
Brennan Professor Andy Hargreaves was one of four recent Grawemeyer Award-winning authors in a session titled 鈥淭he Power of Public Scholarship to Transform Policy and Practice: Five Award-Winning Books.鈥� He was joined by his Professional Capital: Transforming Teaching in Every School co-author Michael Fullan, Stanford University鈥檚 Linda Darling-Hammond and New York University鈥檚 Diane Ravitch.
The Lynch School and the Journal of Professional Capital and Community, which is based at the Lynch School, hosted a reception on April 9th at the Newseum for conference attendees and Boston College alumni who live in the Washington, DC, area.
By Ed Hayward | News & Public Affairs