PIER Fellowship
Fellowship Components
The Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship is a two-year program designed to train Harvard University doctoral students on how to conduct quantitative education research in partnership with school districts and state education agencies.
PIER Fellows learn how to:
- identify questions that are compelling to state and local policymakers as well as to their fellow academics;
- work with practitioners who have a deep appreciation of the implementation challenges created by “academic” research designs;
- assemble and analyze administrative data—the vast bulk of which was not collected with research in mind; and
- present to multiple audiences, including the district and state leaders who might act on the results and who control the data for future projects
The private seminar is a course taught by CEPR Faculty Director Tom Kane that provides an inside look into the mechanics of executing research projects. The year-long course covers topics such as IRB protocols, communicating research to various audiences, data transfer and security, and working with administrative data.
Fellows are required to attend 3-4 PIER Public Seminars per semester. Public Seminars invite leaders in the field from across the country to share their recent research and how their research project evolved, as well as the challenges they faced and how they resolved them along the way.
Fellows receive a stipend to spend 17.5 hours per week conducting research on projects led by a faculty mentor during their time in the program. Fellows will learn data assembly and exploratory data analysis, as well as develop work suitable for publication in peer reviewed journals. The research apprenticeship allow fellows to reduce their teaching load and focus on research.
During their first summer in the program, fellows complete a 10-week residency on site at an education agency. Through this work, fellows develop insight into the role research can and should play in management, as well as a deep knowledge of their partner agency’s data and the relationships necessary for ongoing research partnerships. Fellows are asked to present their work to both faculty and partner education agencies—providing them with experience communicating research to different audiences.
Fellows are required take rigorous coursework that ensures they have the quantitative methods and education policy knowledge to be successful pursuing careers in education research.
During their second year in the program, fellows present research they've completed for their research apprenticeship or their policy internship and receive feedback from their peers and Harvard faculty.
Each year in the program, fellows receive $2,000 to spend on professional development (i.e. attending conferences, accessing research tools, etc.).
The PIER Summit brings together partner education agencies, PIER Fellows, and Harvard faculty to discuss the next frontier of education research.