Ideas In Action

The Nashville Partnership for Educational Equity Research has received a three-year, $650,000 grant from the William T. Grant Foundation to study early postsecondary opportunity offerings, access, and success in Metro Nashville Public Schools and to design solutions for addressing disparities. EPSOs—high school academic offerings that expose students to advanced… Read More

By Jenna Somers Kelly Slay (Vanderbilt University) Kelly Slay, assistant professor of higher education and public policy, is one of 25 education scholars to receive the National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship. The $70,000 non-residential fellowship supports one year of leave from teaching for early-career researchers contributing… Read More

By Jenna Somers Kathryn Humphreys New research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry provides the most rigorous and comprehensive evidence to date that children exposed to severe psychosocial deprivation at a young age benefit substantially in cognitive and physical outcomes when they receive enriching family-based care. Senior… Read More

Dean Camilla Benbow and Jordanian educators Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of education and human development hosted faculty, administrators, and staff from four Jordanian universities in a collaboration with International Research & Exchanges Board from May 8 to 12. The delegation was seeking to develop and implement a pre-service teacher education… Read More

By Jane Sevier Across the globe, educators hunger for resources to strengthen their teaching. Vanderbilt University’s IRIS Center, housed at Peabody College of education and human development, is meeting that need. From Africa and Asia to Europe and from North America to South, educators and independent learners in 229 countries… Read More

By Jenna Somers A new research collaboration focused on generating and sharing evidence-based Black education solutions has launched under the leadership of Vanderbilt Professor Chezare Warren. According to its mission statement, The Possibilities Project “is an arts-informed knowledge hub committed to improving Black students’ well-being in… Read More

Carolyn Heinrich and Melinda Buntin have been awarded a $3.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to support their research on how school-based health centers impact children's mental health and education outcomes. Read More

By Jenna Somers Richard Welsh, associate professor of education and public policy Two recent studies indicate that school-level factors play a considerable role in racial disparities in school discipline. The first study, conducted primarily through a series of interviews, reveals disciplinary tensions between district leaders, school administrators, and… Read More

Joel S. Pizzuti (B.S.’94), president and chief executive officer of The Pizzuti Companies in Columbus, Ohio, will be honored by Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development with the 2023 Distinguished Alumnus Award during Commencement ceremonies on May 12. Headquartered in Columbus with offices in Chicago and Nashville, Pizzuti… Read More

By Jenna Somers Will Doyle, professor of leadership, policy, and organizations In April, Will Doyle, professor of leadership, policy, and organizations, participated in a panel presentation attended by congressional staff in Washington, D.C., to discuss the possibility of federal-state partnerships to fund higher education at low or no… Read More

By Jenna Somers Sarah Brown-Schmidt, professor of psychology and human development In the first four months of Donald Trump’s presidency, leading up to Trump firing FBI director James Comey on May 9, 2017, they met privately nine times. Alarmed by how these meetings broke with traditional boundaries between… Read More

Autumn Kujawa, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development, has received a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health for a study to identify objective predictors of future suicidal behavior in high-risk adolescents. The study could improve understanding of the pathways to suicidal behavior in young people, help to identify those at greatest risk for suicide attempts, and lead to personalized interventions to prevent suicidal behavior and suicide deaths. Read More

By Jenna Somers Ilana Horn, professor of mathematics education, and Yeliz Günal Aggül, Fulbright Dissertation Research Fellow Around the world, educational problems are both highly universal and highly particular. Opportunities to collaborate internationally allow education researchers to see these problems through new perspectives and possibly discover solutions they otherwise may… Read More

Each spring, U.S. News & World Report releases its rankings of various professional schools and disciplines, including graduate schools of education. For 2023-2024, Vanderbilt Peabody College received an overall score of 98 out of a possible 100, resulting in a 6th place ranking. Peabody has been ranked among the… Read More

By Jenna Somers Richard Welsh Racial inequality in school discipline is a major problem across the United States. Black students experience disproportional office disciplinary referrals and out-of-school suspensions, which lead to greater losses in instructional time. Reducing the use of exclusionary discipline is critical for improving academic achievement and educational… Read More

Autumn Kujawa, assistant professor of psychology and human development at Vanderbilt Peabody College, has won the 2023 Award for Distinguished Early Career Contributions to Psychophysiology from the Society for Psychophysiological Research. Read More

By Jenna Somers Phillips-Galloway When doctoral student Basak Çermikli Ayvaz saw an opportunity to secure funding to partner with educators in Turkey to support multilingual and multicultural education, she discussed it with her advisor, Emily Phillips Galloway, assistant professor of literacy education. This led the researchers, both in the… Read More

From left to right: Adela Soliz, Cara DeLoach, Hidahis Mesa By Jenna Somers Community and technical colleges are essential for expanding access to post-secondary education and preparing students to enter the workforce, particularly within their local communities. Unfortunately, these institutions often have limited financial resources to respond to both industry… Read More

Vanderbilt University will host the Impact Evaluation Network of the Latin American and the Caribbean Economic Association for its 16th annual meeting on April 20 and 21. The event will bring together experts on policy impact evaluation to advance knowledge in the field, promote impact evaluation methodologies, increase research… Read More

Researchers in the labs of Laurie Cutting and Bennett Landman recently published a study in Magnetic Resonance Imaging exploring a new tool for imaging the brains of neurofibromatosis type 1 patients and its significance in assessing their symptoms.  Read More