Mark Berends, the director of the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Research on Educational Opportunity and a professor of sociology, has been elected to the National Academy of Education.
The Academy advances high-quality research that improves education quality and practice. Members are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education.
“I am deeply honored to be invited to join the Academy,” Berends said. “It is an incredibly distinguished group of thinkers and researchers, and I am proud to be a part of it.”
In addition to directing the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity, Berends chairs the faculty committee of the Notre Dame Program for Interdisciplinary Educational Research, is a Fellow in the Institute for Educational Initiatives, and serves on the Institute’s faculty committee. He is also a fellow in the Kellogg Institute for International Studies.
“Mark’s research has provided invaluable perspective on how we can improve the education of all youth, particularly the disadvantaged,” said John Staud, the acting director of the Institute and the executive director of the Alliance for Catholic Education. “I am so happy to see his work recognized by the Academy.”
Berends has written and published extensively on educational reform, school choice, the effects of family and school changes on student achievement trends and gaps, and the effects of schools and classrooms on student achievement. His research focuses on how school organization and classroom instruction are related to student outcomes, with special attention to disadvantaged students and school reforms aimed at improving their educational opportunities. Within this agenda, he has applied a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to understanding the effects of school reforms on teachers and students.
Currently, he is conducting several studies on school choice, including an examination of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program, parent decision making and satisfaction in a lottery-based study of charter schools, and how organizational and instructional contexts are related to student outcomes in charter, voucher, and traditional public schools. Berends serves on numerous editorial boards, technical panels, and policy forums; he is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA); former co-editor of AERA’s American Educational Research Journal and Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and twice the vice president of the AERA’s Division L, Educational Policy and Politics. His latest books are School Choice and School Improvement (Harvard Education Press, 2011), School Choice at the Crossroads: Research Perspectives (Routledge, 2019), Handbook of Research on School Choice, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2020), and the International Handbook of the Sociology of Education (SAGE, forthcoming).
Berends is one of 15 newly elected members who will be inducted November 6 in Washington, D.C. Academy members are elected on the basis of outstanding scholarship related to education. Nominations are submitted by individual Academy members once a year for review and election by the organization’s membership.
“These diverse scholars are at the forefront of those who are improving the lives of students in the United States and abroad through their outstanding contributions to education scholarship and research,” said Gloria Ladson-Billings, president of the National Academy of Education.
Originally published at iei.nd.edu.