WASHINGTON – Today, The Education Trust announced the members of its inaugural national P-12 Research Advisor Council (RAC). As states and districts seek to help students recover from unfinished learning and schools face staffing shortages, the RAC will assemble leading education researchers to analyze and understand the impacts on student learning and well-being. The advisory council will advise Ed Trust’s research agenda on teaching and curriculum at a time when multiple states are enacting policies that restrict the teaching of honest history and the experiences of Black and Latino students. The work of the RAC will inform Ed Trust’s research and policy agendas designed to address complex and pressing issues in education and ensure that funding is spent effectively and equitably.

“We are thrilled to bring together some of the leading minds in academia to help shape Ed Trust’s work to improve student opportunity, outcomes, and justice,” said Oscar Jimenez-Castellanos, Ph.D., Ed Trust’s director of P-12 research. “I’m excited to collaborate with the advisory council to tackle some of the most crucial policy issues currently facing our nation’s public education system.”

The RAC members are preeminent international scholars and academics from leading universities who conduct groundbreaking, equity-based research. They will provide insight on the educational landscape to help identify specific equity-based research projects that can deepen and expand the work on Ed Trust’s P-12 priority areas of educator diversity, school funding, early childhood education, assessment and accountability, social-emotional and academic development, and college and career readiness. In addition, there will be opportunities for members of the advisory board to collaborate on research projects and publications.

The RAC members will officially begin their appointment during a convening on March 6, 2023, in Washington D.C. Membership is a one-year appointment with the possibility to serve up to three years.

The inaugural members of the advisory council are:

• Dr. Alfredo J. Artiles, Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education, Director of the Research Institute, Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Stanford University
• Dr. Sonya Douglass, Professor and Founding Director of the Black Education Research Center at Teachers College, Columbia University
• Dr. Michael Feuer, Dean and Professor of Education Policy at The Graduate School of Education and Human Development, George Washington University
• Dr. Vivian L. Gadsden, the William T. Carter Professor of Child Development and Education and Faculty Director, Penn Early Childhood and Family Research Center, University of Pennsylvania
• Dr. Eugene García, Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University, and former U.S. Department of Education Title VII Director
• Dr. Ofelia García, Professor Emerita, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York (CUNY)
• Dr. Kris D. Gutiérrez, Carol Liu Distinguished Professor and Associate Dean at the Berkeley School of Education, University of California, Berkeley
• Dr. Tyrone C. Howard, Professor and Director of the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools at the School of Education & Information Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
• Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings, Professor Emerita and Kellner Family professor of Urban Education at the Department of Curriculum & Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison
• Dr. H. Richard Milner IV, Professor of Education and Sociology and Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Education at the College of Education and Human Development, Vanderbilt University
• Dr. Pedro Reyes, Ashbel Smith Professor of Education Leadership & Policy and Executive Director of the Texas Education Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin
• Dr. Dawn G. Williams, Dean and Professor at the School of Education, Howard University

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About The Education Trust
The Education Trust is committed to advancing policies and practices to dismantle the racial and economic barriers embedded in the American education system. Through our research and advocacy, Ed Trust improves equity in education from preschool through college, engages diverse communities dedicated to education equity and justice, and increases political and public will to build an education system where students will thrive.