Weighing in at ~500 pages, the AERA program is a good weapon, but a crappy guide to a professional meeting. Hopefully, skoolboy and I will save you the trouble of opening it. Below, we’ve listed some promising sessions on topics frequently discussed on this blog (skoolboy’s picks are marked with an *.) Session titles, first authors, and discussants are listed below. Readers, please suggest other sessions that we have overlooked.
Monday
2:15-3:45*: Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching: Explicating and Examining a Program of Research. (Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Jennifer Lewis, Heather Hill, Imani Goffney, Laurie Sleep, Hyman Bass, Pamela Grossman, Stephen Lerman)
4:05-5:35: Class Size Effects: New Insights Into Classroom, School, and Policy Processes (Beth Graue, Peter Blatchford, Maurice Galton, Christian Bruehwiler, Adam Gamoran)
4:05-5:35: Alternative Education: Last Best Chance or Dumping Ground? (Devon Williamson, Jorge Ruiz-De-Velasco, Milbrey McLaughlin, Joseph Johnson, Norm Fruchter)
Tuesday
8:15-9:45*: The Equity of Charter Schools: Access, Admissions, and Choice. (David Labaree, Christopher Lubienski, Peter Weitzel, Justin York, Terri Wilson, Chad Joseph D’Entremont, Charisse Gulosino, Jonathan Dolle, Anne Newman, Hank Levin)
8:15-10:15: The Educational Pipeline and Its Consequences for Students: Realizing Bakke’s Legacy (John Yun, Donald Heller, Michal Kurlaender, Catherine Horn, Gary Orfield, John Payton)
8:15-10:15: Teacher Union Contracts, Labor Relations, and Educational Reform (Katherine Skinner, Katharine Strunk, Lora Cohen-Vogel, Matt Wiswall, La_tara Osborne-Lampkin, Jason Grissom)
12:25-1:55*: From Individual to Organizational Notions of Teacher Quality (Doug Harris, Betsy Becker, Edward Liu, Jennifer King Rice)
12:25-1:55: New York City’s New Model of Accountability: From Inside the Box (Jennifer Goldstein, Dorothy Shipps, Helen Scharff, Judith Kafka, Bruce Fuller)
4:05-5:35*: Organization and Effectiveness of High Intensity Induction Programs for New Teachers. (Tom Smith, Laura Desimone, Daniel Humphrey, Cynthia Carver, Julie Luft, Pamela Grossman, Steven Glazerman, Andrew Porter)
4:05-5:35: Making a Difference in Policy and Practice: Communication, Education Research, and Civic Responsibility (Susan Fuhrman, Alex Molnar, Diane Ravitch, William Tate)
Wednesday
10:35-12:05: Hank Levin – The Economic Payoff to Educational Justice.
10:35-12:05: Are We There Yet? An Examination of Educational Equity in the Era of School Reform and Accountability (Donna Harris, John Diamond, Rodney Ogawa, James Spillane)
12:25-1:55: Assessing Children First: Perspectives on Mayoral Control of Education in New York City (Heather Lewis, Bob Tobias, Deinya Phenix, Norm Fruchter, Charles Kerchner)
12:25 -1:55: Marta Tienda, English Mastery and Academic Achievement
2:15-3:45: The Changing Nature of Suburbia and What it Means for Public Education: Rethinking Stereotypes of “Urban” and “Suburban” Spaces and Schools (John Logan, Sean Reardon, Amy Stuart Wells)
Thursday
8:15-9:45:The Effects of Different School Resources in United States Schools and Districts (Katherine Strunk, David Arsen, Randy Reback, Ann Barron, Richard Rothstein)
10:35-12:05:The Way Class Works: School, Family, and the Economy (Adam Gamoran, Lois Weis, Sean Kelly, Scott Thomas, Jean Anyon)
10:35-12:05*: Research on Schools, Neighborhoods, and Communities: Implications for Research Methods on Social Contexts (Carol Lee, Shirley Brice Heath, Margaret Beale Spencer, Kris Gutierrez, Steve Raudenbush)
10:35-12:05: Disseminating Education Research Through Electronic Media: Advice from E-Journalists (Paul Baker, Alexander Russo, Andy Rotherham, Jenny Medina, Richard Colvin)
12:25-1:55*: High School Dropout Factories: Do They Really Exist, and, If So, What Do We Do About It? (Rosalind Horowitz, Bob Balfanz, Russ Rumberger, William Damon, W. Norton Grubb, Wayne Slater)
2:15-3:45*: Methodological Approaches for Investigating School Principal Expertise: Potential and Challenges. (James Spillane, Jason Huff, Ellen Goldring, Barbara Scott-Nelson, Peter Sleegers, Nicole Kersting)
2:15-3:45:Russ Whitehurst - Seven Things I’ve Learned About Education Research and Policy, Plus or Minus Two
4:05- 5:35: Good Teachers: Who Are They? Where Are They? When Do They Stay and Move? (Jane Hannaway, Dan Goldhaber, Michael Podgursky, Helen Ladd, Tim Sass, Hamp Lankford, Rick Hanushek, Jim Wyckoff)
Friday
10:35-12:05*: Statistical Techniques for Drawing Sound Inferences in Studies of Educational Programs and Practices. (Michael Seltzer, Jinok Kim, Ken Frank, Hyekyung Jung, Junyeop Kim, Hye Sook Shin, Guanglei Hong)
12:25- 1:55: Early Childhood and Primary Education Policy (Bruce Fuller, Jonathan Plucker, Guanglei Hong, Rachel Dawson, Margaret Bridges)
2:15-3:45: Issues in Understanding the Black-White Achievement Gap (Dick Murnane, Sean Reardon, Rick Hanushek, Brian Jacob)