June 21, 2017

Two University of Colorado faculty members chosen for prestigious National Academy of Education fellowships

CU Boulder’s Atteberry, CU Denver’s Poza each to receive research funding

DENVER – Two University of Colorado faculty members have been chosen to receive prestigious fellowships from the National Academy of Education, whose competitive NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship program supports early career scholars working toward significant research contributions to the field of education.

From 300 applicants nationally, 30 were chosen, including:

  • Allison Atteberry, assistant professor, Research and Evaluation Methodology (REM) program, School of Education, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Luis Poza, assistant professor, Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education, School of Education and Human Development, University of Colorado Denver

Each fellow receives $70,000 for a period of up to two years to support research proposals. The program also provides support for recipients through professional development activities with senior academy members.

Atteberry will explore the effects of changes to teacher evaluation policies in recent years across the country. She will combine multiple data sources to link state-year variation in evaluation policies to outcomes that, theory suggests, should be responsive to these policy changes. Her work will create a national picture of whether changes in state-level teacher evaluation policies are associated with concurrent changes in student achievement, achievement gaps, teacher job satisfaction and teacher retention. 

Poza will study the challenges and opportunities of bilingual programs in gentrifying neighborhoods to identify whether community change can be leveraged to foster meaningful integration of students and families across ethnic, linguistic and class backgrounds. The study will use ethnographic methods to explore the relationships and interactional patterns in a bilingual school experiencing gentrification and engage educators and parents in a social design process to foster equity-focused approaches to pedagogy, parent engagement and school organization.

“The NAEd/Spencer Fellowship Programs not only promote important research, but also help to develop the careers of scholars who demonstrate great promise for making significant contributions to education,” said Michael Feuer, president of the NAEd.

More information on the research of Poza, Atteberry and the other recently announced fellowship recipients is available at the 2017 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellows Page.

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