Resources for AERDF's Next Program
Ready to Prove the Impossible? We’re Here to Support You.
The AdvancED Fellows and the next Program Executive Director will benefit from the support and resources of the AERDF team—along with a broad community of partners and collaborators. Here are some resources from that community focused on Advanced Inclusive R&D and the search for solutions that evolve teaching and learning in PreK-12 US education.
Jump to resources from the desks of these leaders and collaborators:
Chris Liang-Vergara
Chief Learning Officer, AERDF
Garron Hillaire
Director of Learning Initiatives, AERDF
The Learning Branch grows AERDF as a platform for Advanced Inclusive R&D in the US by collaborating across our programs and partners to explore, connect, and mobilize knowledge & relationships to accelerate our work.
The Learning Branch oversees the entire AdvancED Fellowship and ensures your support as a candidate through the process.
- AERDF Community Garden for Advanced Inclusive R&D Report: Opportunity Studies 2023: We strongly advise all applicants to read this report. These findings inspired the three Opportunity Areas about which AERDF is particularly interested in receiving proposals from Program Executive Director candidates.
- Loonshots: How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas That Win Wars, Cure Diseases, and Transform Industries
Temple Lovelace
Executive Director, Assessment for Good
AERDF
Assessment for Good is developing formative assessment tools to eradicate the persistent gap in opportunity experienced by Black and Latino learners in the US.
The U.S. education system is at an inflection point on the role of assessment and how this process can more effectively support learners and educators. Here are some resources that have inspired our exploration towards a more transformative experience and better support of learner growth and development.
- Our validity looks like justice. Does yours?
- Culturally Responsive Assessment: Provisional Principles
- The Runaway Species: How Human Creativity Remakes the World
- Tackling Wicked Problems in Complex Ecologies
- Imagining Liberatory Education Futures
- Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Save Education
Aubrey Francisco
Executive Director, EF+Math
AERDF
EF+Math works to dramatically improve math outcomes for Black and Latino students and those experiencing poverty, by strengthening executive function (EF) skills.
Advanced Inclusive R&D processes engender embedding student and educator perspectives within curricular and assessment development from the beginning, and highlight the importance of rapid-cycle iteration with our partners. We hope these resources provide an introductory guide to the unique approach of an AERDF program:
- EF+Math Program Executive Functions, Mathematics, and Equity: A Primer
- Developing New Approaches to Math Equity
- Why Doesn’t Executive Function Training Improve Academic Achievement? Rethinking Individual Differences, Relevance, and Engagement from a Contextual Framework
- Changing the Conversation: A Culturally Responsive Perspective on Executive Functions, Minoritized Children and Their Families.
- Developing Education Products with Equity at the Center
- Strengthening Executive Function Skills to Improve Mathematics Learning
Rebecca Kockler
Executive Director, Reading Reimagined
AERDF
Reading Reimagined is on a mission to unlock reading comprehension for every child and eradicate illiteracy in America.
For the future to be more equitable and for innovations in research and technology to contribute to that reality, we have to start now with the questions we ask and the partnerships we pursue. Here are a few of the inspirations for our approach:
- Podcast: How We Close the Nation’s Literacy Gap (From the podcast “No One is Coming to Save Us”)
- Video: What it’s like to partner with Reading Reimagined to eradicate illiteracy
- How Reluctant Readers Would Design Their Own Educational Technology
Joshua Elliott
Chief Scientist, Renaissance Philanthropy and Co-Director, Brains Initiative (Core Coach)
The Brains Initiative is a training program that provides the skills and opportunities to translate ambitious research visions that aren’t a good fit for a company but are too big for a single academic lab into impact. These visions could be anything—from upending the way we make carbon-based products to how we understand the brain or build air-breathing fusion engines.
Joshua Elliott spent six years at DARPA as a Program Manager in the Information Innovation Office, where he had the privilege to program almost $600M in federal R&D funding. At DARPA he created, ran, and transitioned programs generally in the area of “AI for Science” (computational science, data science, climate science, water/food/conflict, synthetic biology, epidemiology, systems biology, etc.).
Through a one-of-its-kind partnership, AERDF AdvancED Fellows will learn the art of ARPA-ing (advanced research projects) through a robust 12-week curriculum, iterative development of program materials including a concept paper and pitch deck, regular 1:1 mentoring with Joshua, and networking sessions with fellowship peers.
To help you understand and think at the level of an AERDF Program ED, we highly recommend you read these introductory resources on the ARPA approach.
- How To Think About The Differences Between FROs And Private ARPA Programs
- The Different Roles and Phases of Running a Coordinated Research Program
- The Mindsets of a Coordinated Research Leader
- Identifying Bottlenecks and Key Risks
- Mapping Incentives
- What ideas make a good coordinated research program?
- Identifying Who Cares
Dr. M.C. Brown II
Executive Director & Research Scientist, Dr. N. Joyce Payne Center for Social Justice (Core Coach)
The Payne Center pursues research that informs public policy and improves the lives of Black Americans and all marginalized groups.
Dr. M.C. Brown II is regarded as an international scholar in the areas of education policy, governance/administration, and institutional contexts, and has lectured and/or presented over 400 keynotes and research papers in various countries on six of seven continents. He is the Founder of the Atwood Institute on Race, Education, and the Democratic Ideal and the former Executive Director and Chief Research Scientist of the Frederick D. Patterson Research Institute of the United Negro College Fund. He is the author/editor of 20 books and monographs, including two editions of the bestselling textbook, Organization and Governance in Higher Education – and over 100 journal articles, book chapters, and publications related to education and society. He is a two-time recipient of the Philip C. Chinn Book Award from the National Association for Multicultural Education.
Through an incredible partnership, AdvancED Fellows will receive in-depth support from the Payne Center through custom research on scientific knowledge and community dispositions related to their concept. Fellows will also receive subject matter expertise 1:1 coaching from staff across the Payne Center’s HBCUs network.
- Class and Schools: Using Social, Economic, and Educational Reform to Close the Black-White Achievement Gap
- Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom
- A Poor Poverty Measure: To identify children in need, look beyond free lunch data
- “Theoretically all children are equal. Practically this can never be so”: The History of the District Property Tax in California and the Choice of Inequality
- Conceptualizing Cultural and Racialized Processes in Learning
Jean-Claude Brizard
CEO, Digital Promise
Digital Promise shapes the future of learning and advances equitable education systems by bringing together solutions across research, practice, and technology.
AERDF AdvancED Fellows can receive 1:1 coaching support from Digital Promise, focused on an introduction to the Inclusive Innovation Model & their learning sciences team.
Jonathan Kay
Head of Evidence Synthesis, EEF
EEF is dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement by supporting evidence-based teaching and learning solutions at schools, colleges, and early years settings.
Through a unique international partnership, AdvancED Fellows will receive 1:1 evidence coaching from Jonathan and other EEF staff, plus connections to their vast library of reports, meta-analyses, and resources.
Sara Schapiro
Senior Fellow, Education R&D and Social Innovation, Federation of American Scientists
FAS envisions a world where cutting-edge science, technology, ideas and talent are deployed to solve the biggest challenges of our time.
The Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI) brings together education nonprofits, philanthropy, and the private sector to advocate for building a better research and development (R&D) infrastructure in education.
Members of the FAS will join AdvancED Fellows for consultancy and “tuning” sessions for formative feedback on their concepts.
Jennie Magiera
Global Head of Education Impact, Google
Google for Education believes that everyone—educators and learners at every age and stage—deserve the tools and skills that set them up for success in building the future they want for themselves.
AERDF AdvancED Fellows will have office hours with the Google for Education team for tuning and critique of their concepts.
Alison Gazarek
Director of Education, Intentional Futures
Intentional Futures partners with visionary leaders in education organizations working to shift or unlock efficacy, equity, and impact in education across the country.
AdvancED Fellows will receive customized 1:1 coaching on the latest AI and technologies related to their concept and a primer summarizing all of the findings.
Katie Boody-Adorno
CEO, LeanLab
LeanLab’s mission is to study and grow transformational education innovations that have been codesigned with school communities.
AdvancED Fellows will have opportunities for office hours with the LeanLab and AGILE network on their Advanced Inclusive R&D work.
Kim Marshall
Founder, The Marshall Memo
The Marshall Memo is a thought leadership digest keeping principals, teachers, instructional coaches, superintendents, and other PreK-12 educators well-informed on current research and best practices.
AdvancED Fellows will have 1:1 coaching with Kim Marshall and his personal curation of the most relevant content for their concept.
Dr. Landon Mascarenaz
Co-Founder, The Open System Institute
Dr. Doannie Tran
Co-Founder, The Open System Institute
The Open System Insitute is dedicated to transforming the education sector—shifting from existing closed systems to open systems centered on those furthest from opportunity to redesign education, build trust, and restore faith in local democracy.
AERDF AdvancED Fellows will receive 1:1 coaching hours with Landon and Doannie on the design of educational institutions as open systems that are adaptable and responsive to the needs of students, families, and communities.
Aylon Samouha
Co-founder
Jeff Wetzler
Co-founder
Transcend supports school communities to create and spread extraordinary, equitable learning environments.
AdvancED Fellows will receive 1:1 coaching from a Transcend Partner customized to their concept and partake in a Fellows-only workshop with Jeff and Aylon on Transcend’s Leaps for Innovation.
Kunjan Narechania
CEO, Watershed Advisors
Watershed Advisors manages, communicates, and finances good ideas at scale to equitably advance America’s education and workforce systems.
AdvancED Fellows will receive customized legislative and policy scans for their concept and private problems of practice coaching hours with Watershed Advisors.
Laura Seuschek
Chief Creative Officer, Wisewire
Wisewire helps organizations enhance their educational strategies to achieve optimal learning outcomes through Generative AI.
AERDF AdvancED Fellows receive customized development and learning science coaching from Wisewire with future-thinking technology experts that are matched to each Fellow’s concept.
- Unpacking the “Black Box” of AI in Education from ET&S Special Issue on “Human-centered AI in Education: Augment Human Intelligence with Machine Intelligence”
- Some hints about what the next year of AI looks like from One Ordinary Thing: Ethan Mollick
- The Human Touch in AI Learning: Conversations with Dr. Philippa Hardman on the intersection between human and machine learning.
- The Slow Lane: Why Quick Fixes Fail and How to Achieve Real Change