Academy for Educational Development

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 10, 2008—Becky Smerdon, Ph.D., vice president/principal scientist and deputy director of the AED U.S. Education and Workforce Development Group, this week was awarded a Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship by the Council of the Great City Schools.

Smerdon, who has studied high school reform for more than a decade, will focus her research on the dropout crisis in the District of Columbia’s public schools. Through a year-long research partnership with administrators at the 74,000-student district, Smerdon will conduct a study of middle-grades students and their transitions to high school. 

The study will result in:

• A definition of “high school readiness” that can be used for targeted interventions and to identify middle-grades students who are at-risk for dropping out;
• A description of middle grades characteristics that help, or hinder, students’ preparation for high school;
• A list of school characteristics that middle-grades reform efforts should target.

“This new research project will build on AED’s work to assist DCPS in their efforts to transform secondary education,” said Denise G. Borders, senior vice president and director of the AED U.S. Education and Workforce Development Group. “As a nationally recognized expert in high school reform, Dr. Smerdon brings superb analytical skills to this exciting work.”

The Senior Urban Education Research Fellowship program is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and aims to facilitate partnership between the education-research community and urban school districts. Three distinguished education researchers are chosen each year to collaborate with big-city districts to produce studies that help districts reform secondary education.

AED (www.aed.org) is a nonprofit organization working globally to improve education, health, and economic opportunities, with a focus on the underserved.

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