Current Research Projects
Dr. Pedro Reyes
As a social scientist, Dr. Reyes writes on two subject areas: 1). the social organization of schools, particular on the stratification of learning opportunities for children of color in high poverty schools; and on 2). the State-level education policy effects on children's success in p-16 environments. He has raised more than 22 million dollars in research and development funding from The Spencer Foundation, The Annenberg Foundation, the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Foundation, the Texas Education Agency, the National Science Foundation, the Houston Endowment, Inc., The Brown Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, among others.
Right now, he is the Principal Investigator for a research and evaluation project focused on restructuring urban high schools. This initiative, called the Study of High School Restructuring, redesigns high schools into small, theme-based academies to produce graduates ready for the demands of the 21st century. The central goal of the project is to determine whether it is possible to develop and to institutionalize high school reform nationally by investing in specific urban areas through intensive intervention.
Dr. Jeff Wayman
Dr. Wayman's teaching and research interests focus on the use of data for school improvement, and quantitative research methods. Dr. Wayman's research on data-based decision-making includes methods of effective leadership for data use among faculties, systemic supports that enable widespread, independent teacher use of student data, and software that delivers student data to educators. Prior to joining the UT faculty, Dr. Wayman worked at Johns Hopkins University with the Center for Social Organization of Schools, at Colorado State University in the area of prevention research, and as a junior high math teacher in Kansas City and Salt Lake City.
Dr. Wayman is currently Principal Investigator on a three-year project funded by the Spencer Foundation, "The Data-Informed District: Implementation and Effects of a District-Wide Data Initiative." In this project, Dr. Wayman and his research team are working with three Central Texas districts to implement structures that will help these districts become more efficient and effective in their use of data for educational improvement. In addition, Dr. Wayman is leading another research team in a two-year evaluation of the effects of the Acuity data system on student achievement in a large urban district.
Dr. Michelle D. Young
Dr. Young is a nationally recognized authority on the preparation, practice, and evaluation of educational leaders and education policies that facilitate equitable and quality experiences for all students and adults who learn and work in schools. She is the recipient of the William J. Davis award for the most outstanding article published in a volume of the Educational Administration Quarterly. Her work has also been published in the Review of Educational Research, the Educational Researcher, the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of School Leadership, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, the International Journal of Educational Administration, and Leadership and Policy in Schools, among other publications. In her role as Executive Director of UCEA, Young works with universities, practitioners, professional organizations and state and national leaders to continually improve the preparation and practice of school and school system leaders and to create a dynamic base of knowledge on excellence in educational leadership. Young also serves as the Chair of the National Policy Board for Educational Administration and as a member of the Executive Board for the American Educational Research Association (Division A-Organizations and Leadership). She routinely works with states and universities on program improvement projects and serves on a number of national boards that focus on increasing knowledge of and improving practice in educational leadership. Young serves on the ECS MetLife Leadership Project Advisory Board, the Wallace Foundation’s Education Advisory Committee, the Institute for Educational Leadership’s E-Lead Advisory Board, the National Policy Board for Educational Administration, the Educational Leadership Licensure Council (ELCC) Audit Committee, and the National Commission for the Advancement of Educational Leadership Preparation. Young also serves on the Editorial Board of the Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, Educational Administration Abstracts, Education and Urban Society, and the Journal of Research on Leadership Education.
Dr. Angela Valenzuela
Angela Valenzuela is a professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction
and Educational Administration at the University of Texas at Austin.
She is also the director of the newly formed Texas Center for Education
Policy, a university-wide policy center at the University of Texas at
Austin. A Stanford University graduate, her previous teaching
positions were in Sociology at Rice University in Houston, Texas
(1990-98), as well as a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Mexican
American Studies at the University of Houston (1998-99). Her research
and teaching interests are in the sociology of education, minority
youth in schools, educational policy, and urban education reform. She
is also the author of Subtractive Schooling: U.S. Mexican Youth and
the Politics of Caring (State University of New York Press, 1999) and
editor of Leaving Children Behind: How "Texas-style" Accountability
Fails Latino Youth (State University of New York Press, 2004).
Dr. Julian Vasquez Heilig
Julian Vasquez Heilig obtained his Ph.D. in Education Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University. He also holds a Masters of Education Policy in the Center for the Study of Higher and Post secondary Education Policy and a Bachelor’s in History and Psychology from the University of Michigan.
His current research includes quantitatively examining how high-stakes testing and accountability-based reforms and incentive systems impact urban minority students. Additionally, his qualitative work considers the sociological mechanisms by which student achievement and progress occur in relation to specific NCLB-inspired accountability policies in districts and schools for students of different kinds. Julian’s research interests also include issues of access, diversity and equity in higher education.
Dr. Jennifer Jellison Holme
Dr. Jennifer Jellison Holme is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Administration. Her research agenda is centered on the politics and implementation of educational policy, with two major areas of focus: 1) the implementation of accountability policies, including test-driven accountability measures (exit exams and NCLB) as well as market-driven accountability reforms (charter schools and school choice); and 2) the implementation of policies designed to foster greater equity and diversity in schools, particularly school desegregation policy. Her work has been published in The Harvard Educational Review (2002) and Equity and Excellence in Education (2005). She is currently conducting a study of California’s high schools’ organizational and instructional responses to the state’s exit examination requirement.
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