What Educational Research Looked Like When Scores Were Rising - A Comparative Analysis of AERA Conference Programs, 2005–2014 and 2022–2025 - April 2026

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bintang

A comparative analysis examines American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference programs across the rising-score era (2005–2014) and the recent period (2022–2025) to assess whether teacher-identified concerns declined and identity-focused topics increased. Grounded in retrieved program documents, the study applies a reproducible text-matching method and quantifies shifts in priority areas. Results show most teacher concern categories increased, including mental health and technology/AI, while literacy and reading research decreased. The paper argues for protecting federal research infrastructure despite policy change.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages19

Reading Time48 min

AccessFree to download

Background

Central claim and need for a baseline

Methods

Data

Analytical approach

Search terms

Results and discussion

Shifts in teacher-identified research priorities

Correlations with policy and national events

Conclusion

Importance of federal research infrastructure protection

What Educational Research Looked Like When Scores Were Rising: A Comparative Analysis of AERA Conference Programs, 2005–2014 and 2022–2025 April 2026 Sarah Quesen WestEd Recent critiques arguing that educational research has become disconnected from classroom realities are concerning, but an analysis of American Educational Research Association (AERA) conference programs across two eras shows that research focusing on teacheridentified concerns has actually increased for the most part. The analysis I present in this paper is in response to Auburn University professor David Marshall’s analysis of more than 25,000 presentations at AERA annual meetings from 2021 to 2025 (Marshall, 2025a, 2025b) . Marshall found that the research presented at AERA focused heavily on social justice and identity , whereas topics that teachers consider urgent appeared far less frequently. In his survey of more than 300 teachers, the top concerns were student behavior and discipline, technology and AI integration, teacher burnout and workload, teacher retention, literacy and core academics, student mental health, and attention spans (Marshall, 2025c) . His study received extensive media coverage, appearing in The Hill (Marshall, 2025b) and on WBUR radio’s On Point (Marshall, 2025c) . In this paper, I raise a concern that Marshall’s methodology has not been clearly described and is likely not replicable due to its reliance on generative AI for analyzing presentations, but out of shared interest in the relevance of educational research, I extend the approach of focusing on AERA conference programs and examine data from two eras: 2005–2014, when National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores were rising, and 2022– 2025, when scores were declining. My analysis finds that research on teacher-identified concerns mostly increased between these two eras. In particular, mental health research increased 670 percent, technology and AI research increased 145 percent, chronic absenteeism research increased 743 percent, student behavior research increased 19 percent, and teacher retention research increased 14 percent. Research focus on one teacher concern, literacy and reading, moved in the opposite direction, declining 34 percent. Research priorities appear to have shifted in ways that correlate with policy changes and national events. The literacy and reading research decline aligns with the end of federal Reading First funding (Gamse et al. , 2008) . Accountability research declined 73 percent following the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) of 2015. Equity research increased 408 percent following the events of 2020, which brought changes in funded research opportunities. I argue that protecting federal research infrastructure is paramount, independent of changing federal and state policy priorities. Recent cuts to the Institute of Education Sciences threaten the data systems that all educational research depends upon regardless of research focus. 1. Background Marshall’s central claim is that educational research’s focus on identity has displaced the practical inquiry that teachers need. But his analysis examined only recent conferences. For better understanding whether research priorities have actually shifted, a baseline for comparison is needed. For a baseline to use in this analysis, I chose to compare the more recent American Educational Research Association (AERA ) presentations to those from an era that had a different student achievement context. Between 2000 and 2015, American education experienced measurable progress. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data show reading and mathematics scores improving steadily, with most scores peaking around 2013 ( National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2025; Wyckoff, 2025) . The subsequent period tells a different story: From 2015 onward, student achievement declined, with recent NAEP scores in 8th grade math falling to levels not seen in 2 decades.

FAQs

What question does the paper ask about AERA conference research priorities?

It compares research priorities across two eras—2005–2014 and 2022–2025—to determine whether teacher-identified concerns declined and whether identity-focused topics increased.

How does the study analyze AERA programs in a replicable way?

It converts AERA program PDFs to plain text, normalizes text to lowercase, and searches for exact term matches using R with specified packages.

What major changes does the analysis report between the two eras?

Teacher-identified concern research mostly increased, including mental health (+670%), technology/AI (+145%), and chronic absenteeism (+743%), while literacy and reading declined by 34%.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Bintang