Raudenbush to receive honor for education research

Stephen Raudenbush, the Lewis-Sebring Distinguished Service Professor in Sociology and the College and Chair of the Committee on Education, has received the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award from the American Education Research Association.

The award honors a “meritorious contributor to educational research” and is intended to “motivate, encourage and suggest models of education research at its best,” according to an announcement from the association.

Raudenbush was honored for his contributions to educational measurement and statistics, the design and meta-analysis of education research, the analysis of student learning in school settings and organizational effects. He also was honored for his contributions to urban sociology.

Raudenbush’s work on advanced research techniques allows researchers to evaluate data from school performance more accurately. His research pursues the development, testing, refinement and application of statistical methods for individual change and the effects of social settings, such as schools and neighborhoods.

He is scientific director of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, an ambitious study of how family, neighborhood and school settings shape the academic learning, social development, mental health and exposure to violence of children growing up in Chicago.

During the past year, Raudenbush has been engaged in activities to inaugurate the work of the newly formed Committee on Education. The Committee has launched a new Workshop in Education and a new inter-disciplinary pre-doctoral training program in education.