Four Steinhardt Professors Take Home Awards

By Jennifer Zwiebel

Lorena Llosa, Christina Marin, Selcuk Sirin, and Eugene Tobin were presented with awards for their pioneering work at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in San Francisco April 9. The conference’s theme was “Education Research in the Public Interest.”

Llosa, assistant professor of education in Steinhardt’s Department of Teaching and Learning won the Outstanding Dissertation Award in AERA’s Division H School Evaluation and Program Development category for “Building and Supporting a Validity Argument for a Standards-Based Classroom Assessment of English Proficiency.”

Marin, assistant professor of educational theater in Steinhardt’s Music and Performing Arts Professions Department, received the Outstanding Dissertation Award for “Breaking Down Barriers, Building Dreams: Using Theatre for Social Change to Explore the Concept of Identity with Latino Adolescents.” Her dissertation was selected as an arts-based research method involving identity, racism, and diversity.

Sirin, assistant professor in the Department of Applied Psychology, received the Review of Research Award for his article, “Socioeconomic Status and Academic Achievement: A Meta-Analytic Review of Research” published in the fall 2005 issue of AERA’s peer-reviewed scholarly journal, Review of Educational Research. His article considers the effect of family socioeconomics on school success and the well-being of children and adolescents.

Tobin received the Outstanding Book Award for Equity and Excellence in American Higher Education with co-author William G. Bowen, senior officer at the Mellon Foundation. Tobin is a program officer at the Mellon Foundation, the former president of Hamilton College, and is currently a visiting scholar in Steinhardt’s Institute for Higher Education Policy. This award recognizes the year’s best publication in educational research and development. The book, published by the University of Virginia Press in April 2005, provides a history of American higher education from primary school to university since the American Revolution, discusses the social and economic conditions that shape contemporary governmental and institutional policies, and analyzes future challenges facing policymakers, educational leaders, parents, and students.