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Elizabeth Albro, National Center for Education Research

Dr. Elizabeth Albro

Commissioner, National Center for Education Research

Announcement:

I am pleased to announce that as of 9 July, Dr. Elizabeth Albro will become the Commissioner of the National Center for Education Research.

Dr. Albro's career has been dedicated to building bridges between the basic sciences of learning and education practice. Trained in the behavioral and social sciences, cognition, and communication, she received her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Chicago. Her research expertise includes understanding the role of memory in reading comprehension; examining how peer relationships shape conflict and conflict resolution in young children; and designing small-scale experimental research. Since coming to IES in 2002, she has sought to integrate basic and applied work. As a program officer, she oversaw multiple research grant portfolios, helping to build the Cognition and Student Learning, and Reading and Writing research portfolios. In her roles as Associate Commissioner of Teaching and Learning and as Acting Commissioner of Education Research, she played a pivotal role in launching several large-scale research efforts, including the Reading for Understanding Research Initiative, the National Research and Development Center on Cognition and Mathematics Instruction, and the Early Learning Network. Dr. Albro also identified and worked closely with the expert panel who wrote one of the first IES Practice Guides, Organizing Instruction to Support Study and Learning. Throughout her career, she has been committed to ensuring that the findings from federally funded research are shared widely with the public and currently serves as the Department's lead on public access and open science. Prior to joining IES, Dr. Albro was a faculty member at Whittier College and Wheaton College (Norton, MA), and an early childhood educator.

Liz follows Tom Brock, who served as Commissioner for NCER for over 5 years. Tom is assuming the leadership of the Community College Research Center at Teachers College as of 1 September.

Mark Schneider
Director, Institute of Education Sciences

About us:

The National Center for Education Research (NCER), one of the four centers within the Institute of Education Sciences, supports rigorous research that contributes to the solution of significant education problems in our country.

Through its research programs and the national research and development centers, NCER supports research activities to improve the quality of education and thereby, increase student academic achievement, reduce the achievement gap between high-performing and low-performing students, and increase access to and completion of postsecondary education. NCER also funds predoctoral and postdoctoral research training programs to invest in the training and development of the next generation of education researchers.

NCER research programs are designed to produce research that is scientifically rigorous and relevant to the needs of education practitioners and decisionmakers. NCER research programs address education programs, practices, and policies in reading and writing, mathematics and science education, teacher quality, education leadership, education policy and finance, cognition and student learning, high school reform, and postsecondary education. Within these programs of research, investigators are identifying existing education programs, practices, and policies that may impact student outcomes; developing new education interventions (e.g., curricula, teacher professional development programs); evaluating the efficacy of fully developed programs or practices; evaluating the effectiveness of specific interventions taken to scale; and developing and validating assessments. Through these activities, NCER is advancing understanding of teaching, learning, and education systems in order to improve the quality of education for all students.