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Current Research Projects
Peabody is among the leading education schools in the country receiving external funding for research. In fact, of the top five graduate schools of education (U.S. News & World Report), over the last three years, Peabody had the third highest amount of research funding, with an average of $24.1 million per year.
A strong research agenda ensures that Peabody is a major contributor to the growing body of knowledge about education and public policy, psychology, human development, organizational leadership, helping those with disabilities, and strengthening families and communities. Our students benefit, as well, through regular classroom interaction with scholars who are creating the content of tomorrow’s textbooks.
Here’s a (small) sampling of some of the work underway, funded by grants received in 2006:
Benefiting young children
- Mary Louise Hemmeter, Special Education (SPED), received a grant of almost $1 million for her Center on the Social and Emotional Foundations of Early Learning.
- Ann Kaiser, Terry Hancock (SPED), and David Dickinson, Teaching and Learning (T&L), were awarded $2.2 million to conduct a large scale language intervention in Head Start classrooms in Birmingham, Ala.
Improving schools and school systems
- Peabody’s National Center on School Choice received $10 million from the Department of Education. In the fall, the Center held a national conference on charter schools to review performance data and further refine the research agenda regarding this growing movement.
- James Guthrie, Robert D. Ballou, and Matthew Springer (LPO) were awarded $10 million to establish a second national center, the National Center on Performance Incentives, to conduct rigorous research on teacher pay-for-performance reforms.
Strengthening teaching and learning in math and science
- Peabody is a home to nationally prominent scholars working to improve the teaching of mathematics and science. Leona Schauble and Rich Lehrer, (T&L), received almost $1.7 million for their ongoing development of modeling-based teaching strategies.
- Paul Cobb (T&L) and Thomas Smith (LPO), were awarded $1.4 million for their efforts to design organizations that can better foster the teaching of math; MIST: Middle School Mathematics and the Institutional Setting of Teaching,
- Marcy Singer-Gabella, Kay McClain and Rich Lehrer (T&L) obtained a grant of $1.4 million for research into better ways to prepare teachers in these critical 21st century subject areas.
Helping those with special needs
- Peabody’s IRIS Center is a national resource for improving the pre-service preparation of teachers, administrators, and counselors so that they might better work with students and families affected by disabilities. The center was renewed with a grant of $1.35 million.
- Joseph Wehby and Craig Kennedy (SPED) were awarded $2.1 million for their efforts aimed at reducing behavior problems in schools.
- Donald Compton, Douglas H. Fuchs, and Lynn S. Fuchs (SPED) received more than $5 million to develop interventions to prevent learning disabilities in reading and math.
Addressing health and behavioral problems in Tennessee communities
- Maury Nation, Douglas Perkins, Kimberly Bess, and Paul Speer (HOD) are part of the Nashville Urban Partnership Academic Center of Excellence (NUPACE) with Meharry Medical School, TSU, and Metro government to study and reduce youth violence in schools and neighborhoods (Vanderbilt portion: $1.5 million).
- Craig Anne Heflinger has grants of $1.2 million to study patterns of service use and outcomes of adolescents with substance abuse problems and mental health disorders living in rural areas.