Lora Cohen-Vogel, the School of Education’s Frank A. Daniels Jr. Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Education, has been named editor of the forthcoming “Handbook in Improvement-focused Educational Research.”
Cohen-Vogel, a leading expert in improvement science in education, will be joined on the editorial team by Don Peurach of the University of Michigan, Bill Penuel of the University of Colorado Boulder, and Jenn Russell of the University of Pittsburgh.
“This is a foundational project because improvement approaches are relatively new to education and research about their impact is growing fast,” Cohen-Vogel said.
Through 2015, Cohen-Vogel was co-principal investigator of the five-year, $13.5 million National Center for Research and Development on Scaling Up Effective Schools, a research-practice partnership between UNC-Chapel Hill, Vanderbilt University, Florida State University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Education Development Center, and two of the nation’s largest school districts.
Through her work with the center, Cohen-Vogel developed an interest and expertise in continuous improvement research. She continues to write and speak widely on the topic and the potential she believes it holds for system improvement.
Improvement approaches in education include what Cohen-Vogel describes as a “family of methods” bound by common features:
• An action orientation;
• A commitment to produce knowledge that is respected beyond the boundary of those who produce it;
• And, an appreciation for the relationship between research and practice that acknowledges the value of adapting to context.
The volume will feature 20 chapters organized into four sections. It will be published by Rowman & Littlefield and is expected in 2021.