James Sadler, Royster Fellow and Ph.D. student in Policy, Leadership, and School ImprovementThe PLS program has allowed me to explore my research interests on multiple fronts, from the fields of policy, political science, sociology, and economics. This interdisciplinary approach with a focus on rigorous research has given me the necessary tools to help tackle some of the world’s hardest educational questions.
Our Faculty are Leaders in their Disciplines
PLS is led by scholars who examine hard issues in education.
Lora Cohen-Vogel, the School of Education’s Frank A. Daniels Distinguished Professor of Public Policy & Education, has been appointed to the National Academies of Sciences’ Committee on the Future of Educational Research. The committee, which includes 15 leading educational researchers from across the country, will work to inform future directions of the Institute of Education…
Eric Houck, associate professor in the Policy, Leadership and School Improvement and Educational Leadership programs, has been elected vice president of the National Education Finance Academy. With the election, Houck is in line to serve as vice president during the upcoming year, as president-elect in 2022-23, then as president in 2023-24. The NEFA is a…
A study led by faculty member Lauren Sartain has won an award from the American Educational Research Association. The study, in which a team led by Sartain studied educators’ perceptions of a teacher evaluation system used in Chicago Public Schools, has been chosen as the first place winner for AERA Division H’s Outstanding Publication in…
A team including faculty member Thurston “Thad” Domina has been named to lead Educational Researcher, the premiere academic journal of the American Educational Research Association. Domina, an associate professor of educational policy and sociology at the School of Education, is one of five co-editors who will lead the journal. The team was chosen after an…
Lora Cohen-Vogel, the School of Education’s Frank A. Daniels Professor of Public Policy and Education, has been named editor of a second volume of the AERA Handbook of Education Policy Research. The book, the first volume of which was published by the American Educational Research Association in 2009, is the premiere text for the field…
Recently, a North Carolina Superior Court judge approved $427 million consent order meant to improve the state’s schools based on the previous Leandro decision. UNC School of Education faculty members, including Peter Halpin and Constance Lindsay, and recent doctoral program graduate Allison Rose Socol produced research cited in the WestEd report that informed the plan.…