The Interdisciplinary Training Program (ITP) for Predoctoral Research in the Education Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is training a new generation of researchers to carry out rigorous quantitative research that will provide scientific evidence on pressing problems of policy and practice in education. Wisconsin's ITP focuses on two related themes: (a) design and implementation of field-based randomized studies in schools and other complex, real-world settings; and (b) the statistical analysis of quantitative survey, observational, and assessment data on education, with special attention to questions of causal inference. The program brings together the talents and research interests of over 25 scholars from the College of Letters and Sciences and the School of Education, along with the resources of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, to provide specialized academic, professional and financial supports and field research opportunities to a select group of doctoral students in economics, psychology, political science, sociology, and social welfare. These students form the core of an emerging interdisciplinary community that includes a wide variety of scholars, state and local education experts, and students concerned with scientific evidence on educational effects.

Project Website: http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/itp.

Publications from this project:

Goldrick-Rab, S. & Benson, J. (2005, April 6). Are community colleges like towns? Not really [Letter to the editor]. Education Week 24 (30): 38.

Borman, G. D., Benson, J., & Overman, L. T. (2005). Families, schools and summer learning. Elementary School Journal, 106, 131–150.

Goldrick-Rab, S., & Benson, J. (2006, March). Access Wisconsin: An exploration of college-going in the context of high school and district characteristics. Forum Paper Series. Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education.

Borman, G. D. & Benson, J. (2006). Can brain research and computers improve literacy? A randomized field trial of the Fast ForWord language computer-based training program. Madison: WCER Working Paper No. 2006–5, August 2006.

Borman, G. D., & Benson, J. (In press). Can brain research and computers improve literacy? A randomized field trial of the Fast ForWord Language computer-based training program. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Benson, J. & Borman, G. D. (2007). Family and contextual socioeconomic effects across seasons: When do they matter for the achievement growth of young children? Madison: WCER Working Paper no. 2007–5, August 2007.

Benson, J. & Borman, G. D. (In press). Family and contextual socioeconomic effects across seasons: When do they matter for the achievement growth of young children? Teacher's College Record.

Bodmann, S. M., Hulleman, C. S., & Harackiewicz, J. M. (in press). Achievement goal systems: An application of goal systems theory to achievement goal research. International Review of Social Psychology.

Borman, G.D., Gamoran, A. & Bowdon, J. (in press). A randomized trial of teacher development in elementary science: First-year achievement effects. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.

Carlson, D., Haveman, R., Kaplan, T., & Wolfe, B. (2008). Long-term effects of public low-income housing vouchers on work, earnings, and neighborhood quality. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty. Discussion Paper no. 1338–08.

Soss, J., Condon, M., Holleque, M., & Wichowsky, A. (2006). The Illusion of technique: How method-driven research leads welfare scholarship astray. Social Science Quarterly, 87, 798–807.

Condon, M. (2006). Education. In The Reporter's Source Book (73–87). Philipsburg, MT: Project Vote Smart.

Condon, M. (2006). Entitlement reform. In The Reporter's Source Book (62–72). Philipsburg, MT: Project Vote Smart.

Cowen, J. (2007). School choice as a latent variable: Estimating the complier average causal effect of school vouchers in Charlotte. Policy Studies Journal, 36, 301–315.

Cowen, J. M., Fleming, D. J., & Gofen, A. (in press). Measuring the motivation to charter: An examination of school sponsors in Texas. Journal of School Choice.

Borman, G. D., & Grigg, J. A. (in press). The visual and narrative interpretation of research syntheses. In H. Cooper, L. Hedges, & J. Valentine (Eds.) The Handbook of research synthesis (2nd ed.). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Halverson, R., Grigg, J. A., Prichett, R., & Thomas, C. (in press). The new instructional leadership: Creating data-driven instructional systems in schools. Journal of School Leadership, 17 (2), 159–94.

Barron, K.E. & Hulleman, C.S. (2006). Is there a formula to help understand and improve student motivation? In Essays from Excellence in Teaching, vol. 8. Retrieved [August 5, 2006] from the Society for the Teaching of Psychology Web site: http://list.kennesaw.edu/archives/psychteacher.html.

Hulleman, C. S., Durik, A. M., Schweigert, S. A., & Harakiewicz, J. M. (2008). Task values, achievement goals, and interest: An Integrative analysis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100, 398–416.

Prather, R. W. & Alibali, M. W. (2008). Understanding and using principles of arithmetic: Operations involving negative numbers. Cognitive Science, 32, 445–457.

Prather, R. W. (2007). Implicit learning of arithmetic principles. In R. Alterman & D. Kirsch (Eds.), Proceedings of the Twenty-Ninth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, 1839. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Darnon, C., Muller, D., Schrager, S. M., Pannuzzo, N., & Butera, F. (2006). Mastery and performance goals predict epistemic and relational conflict regulation. Journal of Educational Psychology, 98, 766–776.

Berkowitz, L., Schrager, S. M., & Dunand, M. A. (2006). Shared suffering can mitigate aversively-generated aggression: On the role of the target's stimulus characteristics. Aggressive Behavior, 32, 80–87.

Heinrich, C., Shager, H., Rothe, I. & Cancian, M. (2005). Families Forward: Child support arrears forgiveness program and evaluation: Implementation report. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty. Report prepared for the State of Wisconsin Bureau of Child Support.

Cancian, M., Heinrich, C., Rothe, I., Shager, H., & Burkhardt, B. (2006). Families Forward: Child support arrears forgiveness program and evaluation report. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty. Report prepared for the State of Wisconsin Bureau of Child Support

Heinrich, C., Burkhardt, B., & Shager, H. (2008). The Families Forward Program: Preliminary evaluation findings and recommendations. Madison, WI: Institute for Research on Poverty. Report prepared for the State of Wisconsin Bureau of Child Support.

Shober, A. F., Manna, P. & Witte, J. F. (2006). Flexibility meets accountability: State charter school laws and their influence on the formation of charter schools in the United States. Policy Studies Journal, 34, 563–588.

Witte, J. F., Weimer, D. L., Shober, A. F., & Schlomer, P. A. (2007). The Performance of charter schools in Wisconsin. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 26, 557–573.

Witte, J.F., Schlomer, P. A., & Shober, A. F. (2007). Going charter? A Study of school district competition in Wisconsin. Peabody Journal of Education, 82, 387–409.

Shober, A. (In press). Building Government: Autonomy, Accountability, and Accessibility in State Departments of Education. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Topitzes, J., Tiwari, G., Godes, O., Ceglarek, S., & Reynolds, A. J. (2006). Internal Report: Adult Health. Madison, WI: Chicago Longitudinal Study.

Topitzes, J., Mersky, J., & Reynolds, A. (2006). Internal Report: Juvenile Delinquency Updated. Madison, WI: Chicago Longitudinal Study.

Reynolds, A. J., Temple, J. A., Ou, S., Mersky, J. P., Topitzes, J., Roberson, D. L., & Niles, M.D. (2007). Effects of a school-based early childhood intervention on adult health and well-being: A 19-year-old follow-up of low-income families. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 161, 730–739.

Palloni, A., Milesi, C., White, R. & Turner, A. (2008). Triggering inequality and health gradients: Do health selection effects matter? In J. Surkyn, J. van Bavel, & P. Deboosere (Eds.), Demographic Challenges for the 21st Century. A State of the Art in Demography. Liber amicorum for Ron Lesthaeghe. Brussels: Vrije Universiteit Press.

Lyons, D.E., Young, A.G., & Keil, F.C. (2007). The hidden structure of overimitation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104 (50): 19751–19756.