EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University education expert Barbara L. Schneider has been named director of a new national center created to advance educational research in science, technology, engineering and math.
With a team from the University of Chicago, Schneider received a five-year, multimillion-dollar grant from the National Science Foundation to support and leverage the work of more than 320 education research projects across the country. The projects, which generate critical knowledge in the target disciplines, are funded by NSF’s growing Research and Evaluation on Education and Science and Engineering.
While the Center for Advancing Research and Communication in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics will offer investigators technical help with research methods and design, the focus is to ensure its findings are communicated to a larger audience and used to improve teaching and learning in schools and universities.
Schneider, MSU’s John. A. Hannah Distinguished Professor in Education, said the United States must strengthen academic performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to compete globally and prepare students for the changing job market.
“ARC will increase the likelihood that opportunities for impacting policy and practice are not missed,” she said. “The work that comes out of the program also can generate new knowledge and new kinds of studies.”
ARC officially opened earlier this month at the National Opinion Research Center, housed at the University of Chicago. Schneider will conduct a line of research for the center at MSU. She will study how the collective knowledge gained at different stages of the REESE projects, which explore a wide variety of math- and science-related learning issues from early childhood through higher education, can compel important changes in education policy.
Schneider also will work closely with colleagues at MSU, including four of eight members on the ARC Board of Science Advisors:
- C. Konrad Gelbke, director of the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory
- Susan Masten, professor of civil and environmental engineering
- Duncan Sibley, director of the Center for Research on College Science Teaching and Learning
- William Schmidt, University Distinguished Professor and principal investigator of Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education
- Schneider’s co-principal investigators are Sarah-Kathryn McDonald (National Opinion Research Center), Larry Hedges (Northwestern University) and Colm O'Muircheartaigh (University of Chicago).
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