Washington, April 12, 2010—Important new findings and new research directions are the hallmarks of the March issue of Educational Researcher , a peer-reviewed publication of the American Educational Research Association. This issue is marked by a breadth of topics, data that debunk conventional wisdom, and articles likely to reframe future research.
The lead article examines cognitive ability—or IQ—across a lifetime and notes that educational attainment is more influential than IQ in predicting life success. Based on findings from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the author reports that IQ has little influence on job performance, occupational standing, earnings, or wealth among persons with equal levels of schooling.
Ending social promotion is often touted as an important strategy in K-12 education. The results of this investigation indicate that test-based retention policies potentially violate several professional standards for fair and appropriate test use.
The authors challenge the use of eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch as an indicator of family poverty. Although often used in research studies, a student's eligibility for free lunch is not an accurate measure of socioeconomic status (SES), the authors say. Despite its frequent use, the free lunch variable possesses important deficiencies that suggest that other measures of SES should be considered.
This article systematically examines scholarship on LGBT/Queer research in higher education. Noting that general problems and questions of access, equity, learning, and leadership persist across all sectors of postsecondary education, the author points to how queer theory, with increasing methodological rigor and theoretical depth, might contribute to addressing larger questions in higher education than possible through socially constructed binary categories such as male/female, teacher/learner, and leader/follower.
Framed as a "primer" on the issues and methods necessary to obtain unbiased results from large-scale assessment data, particularly on TIMSS, PIRLS, and PISA, this article raises important and challenging issues regarding the rigorous use of such large-scale databases to produce findings of educational import throughout the world.
Each of these articles in Educational Researcher examines a different issue, taking a look at evidence with an innovative eye and opening a window to redirect thinking in the five representative fields of education research.
Educational Researcher is available online at www.aera.net .
Editor's Note: The full text of Educational Researcher is posted on the AERA Web site. The March issue can be accessed at http://www.aera.net/publications/Default.aspx?menu_id=38&id=9278
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The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is the national interdisciplinary research association for approximately 25,000 scholars who undertake research in education. Founded in 1916, AERA aims to advance knowledge about education, to encourage scholarly inquiry related to education, and to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.
Educational Researcher