Selection is underway for doctoral students in a new interdisciplinary program for education research, made possible by a $3.7 million grant awarded to the School of Education and Social Policy in August.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences awarded the grant, which funds a program that focuses on training students in education research, practice and policy.

The School of Education and Social Policy was one of five institutions nationally to receive grant money.

“It’s very exciting because there were so few selected,” said Jeanne Hughes, assistant dean of the college. “It’s very competitive.”

The Predoctoral Training Program in Educational Sciences allows Northwestern to be at the “cutting edge of education research” and produce the next generation of educational researchers, said James Spillane, the program’s director and a learning sciences and social policy professor.

“It provides an opportunity for Northwestern to really have an impact in educational scholarship over the next decades,” he said.

Four students from doctoral programs in education, social policy, sociology, economics and psychology will be selected to enter the new program this year, Hughes said.

They will be notified in time to start their studies Winter Quarter.

In addition to required and optional coursework, students also will participate in an apprenticeship with core and affiliated faculty members that centers on education research, Spillane said.

Students will receive instruction and mentoring from 10 core faculty members in the psychology, sociology, statistics, economics, learning sciences and human development, and social policy programs. There will be 20 more affiliated faculty from those programs, as well as anthropology and law.

Economics Prof. Christopher Taber, a core faculty member for the program and a faculty fellow with the Institute for Policy Research, said the training is “a great opportunity for our students,” to work on an important political issue.

“Ultimately the goal is higher quality research in education in the future,” Taber said.

Over the course of five years, 22 doctoral fellows will enter the program. Typically, they will enter the program during their second year and continue through their fourth year.

Future fellows will be recruited as doctoral applicants whose interests match the goals of the program, said Hughes.

In addition to funding the fellowship positions, the grant also will pay for 50 percent of a new, tenure-track faculty position shared by the School of Education and Social Policy and the psychology department for the program. The rest of the position’s salary will come from existing Education and Weinberg funds.

Spillane said the search has “just started.” He added that he expects a faculty member will be chosen by late Winter Quarter.

The School of Education and Social Policy applied for the grant after Russ Whitehurst, director of the Institute of Education Sciences, visited NU last spring as a speaker for the Institute for Policy Research. During his visit, Whitehurst suggested the school apply for the federal grant, Hughes said.

NU will supplement the grant with about $1.2 million, giving fellows full scholarships and stipends, said Spillane.

Reach Angela Tablac at [email protected].