The American Educational Research Association (AERA) is a left-of-center organization that advocates for increased federal funding for education research. ¹  It also publishes reports for Congress to support funding of specific programs and lowering standards for federal grants. ^{2 3}

Background

The American Educational Research Association is a charitable organization that was founded in 1916 as an education research group. It works with government agencies such as the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the National Science Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to advocate for increased funding of education research and to advise agencies on public policy. ^{4 5}

AERA has a membership consisting of 25,000 education professionals, researchers, and students. ¹ Its members use AERA’s research within their education programs and classes, within their education research, and to advocate for public policy. It also provides professional development resources for education professionals. ⁶

Advocacy Initiatives

Common Rule

One of American Educational Research Association’s ongoing advocacy initiatives concerns the Common Rule regulations under the Department of Health and Human Services. Common Rule is a set of regulations governing how researchers can study human subjects. In 2011, the Obama administration announced it would be revising Common Rule regulations and AERA held panels and advised regulators on what Common Rule should include. ^{7 8}

In January 2013,  AERA reported that the National Academies’ Committee on Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences was tasked with producing a report to advise the Department of Health and Human Services on revisions to be made to the Common Rule regulations. ⁹ To do so, the National Research Council created a panel funded by the National Science Foundation to produce a report with a list of recommendations for revisions to be made to Common Rule. AERA executive director Felice Levine sat on the panel. ¹⁰ The panel made recommendations that defined what is considered “human subjects research” and how data should be secured for the privacy of the subjects. ¹¹

In September 2015, the Department of Health and Human Services published proposed changes to Common Rule which credit the National Academies’ proposed recommendations from its 2013 panel to which AERA contributed. ²

Institute of Education Sciences

AERA lists reauthorization of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and maintaining the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) as an independent organization as one of its three main policy initiatives. In 2009, AERA created a task force to advise Congress and the U.S. Department of Education on changes to be made to IES during the reauthorization of its funding. In 2011, AERA produced a report advocating for changes to be made to departments within IES, including increased funding and autonomy of specific departments, that Congress and the Department of Education should include in their reauthorization of IES. ^{12 13}

AERA has hosted IES staff at its events and IES has hosted sessions at AERA events where research “funding opportunity sessions” were made available to attendees. ¹⁴

Research Funding

AERA has an advocacy initiative that focuses on increasing funding for research of social and behavioral sciences. ¹⁵

In November 2013, AERA published commentary on Congress’s review of the COMPETES Act and how its reauthorization would affect the funding of research programs at the National Science Foundation (NSF). The commentary was skeptical of requiring the NSF Director to review and approve research grants, questioning the ability of a single person to handle all of the grants, and it was critical of requiring grants funding social and behavioral science research to be “of higher priority” and to contain “substantial original research.” AERA stated that it opposed the research grant requirements because it would reduce the amount of funding for research in the social and behavioral sciences. ³

Financials

In 2022, American Educational Research Association reported $12.1 million in total revenue, including $7.1 million in program service revenue and $1.4 million in contributions. ¹⁶ It also reported $12.8 million in total expenses, including $4.0 million in salaries and compensation of employees. ¹⁷ AERA’s 2022 program service revenue consisted of $3.5 million in membership dues and $3.2 million received through its annual meeting. ¹⁸ AERA also reported receiving $978,537 in government grants in 2022. ¹⁹

Leadership

Felice Levine is the executive director of American Educational Research Association. She previously was executive officer of the American Sociological Association, director of the Law and Social Science Program for the National Science Foundation, and senior research social scientist at the American Bar Foundation. She is a sociology and psychology researcher and has sat on the National Human Research Protections Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and on the 2000 Decennial Census Advisory Committee. ²⁰

1. “Who We Are.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/About-AERA/Who-We-Are
2. “Federal Register.” Vol. 80, No. 173. United States Government Publishing Office, September 8, 2015. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2015-09-08/pdf/2015-21756.pdf.
3. “America COMPETES Act Reauthorization Raises Concerns for Researchers.” American Educational Research Association. November, 2013. https://www.aera.net/Newsroom/AERA-Highlights-E-news-Update/AERA-Highlights-November-2013/America-COMPETES-Act-Reauthorization-Raises-Scrutiny-of-Peer-Review.
4. “American Educational Research Association.” Ballotpedia. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://ballotpedia.org/American_Educational_Research_Association.
5. “AERA Government Relations.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/Research-Policy-Advocacy/AERA-Government-Relations.
6. “ADVANCING EDUCATION RESEARCH AND SERVING THE PUBLIC GOOD.” American Educational Research Association, October 18, 2016. https://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/AERA%20brochure.pdf?ver=2016-10-18-141223-277.
7. Jaschik, Scott. “U.S. Issues Final Version of ‘common Rule’ on Research Involving Humans.” Inside Higher Ed, January 19, 2017. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/01/19/us-issues-final-version-common-rule-research-involving-humans.
8. “The Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/Research-Policy-Advocacy/Issues-and-Initiatives/The-Common-Rule-for-the-Protection-of-Human-Subjects-in-Research.
9. Committee on Revisions to the Common Rule for the Protection of Human Subjects in Research in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, March 31, 2014. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK217968/.
10.  “NRC Panel to Examine Common Rule-Executive Director Levine Appointed.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/Publications/AERA-Highlights/AERA-Highlights-January-2013/NRC-Panel-to-Examine-Common-Rule-mdashExecutive-Directo.
11. “NRC Panel Issues Recommendations on Common Rule.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/Newsroom/AERA-Highlights-E-newsletter/AERA-Highlights-January-2014/NRC-Panel-Issues-Recommendations-on-Common-Rule.
12. “IES Reauthorization and NCES Autonomy.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/Research-Policy-Advocacy/Issues-and-Initiatives/IES-Reauthorization-and-NCES-Autonomy.
13. “New AERA Report Offers Recommendations for Reauthorization of Institute of Education Sciences .” American Educational Research Association, April 10, 2011. https://www.aera.net/Portals/38/docs/News_Media/AERANEWS2011.pdf.
14. “National Center for Education Research (NCER) IES Funding Opportunities Sessions at SRCD and Aera.” Institute of Education Sciences (IES) Home Page, a part of the U.S. Department of Education. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://ies.ed.gov/ncer/projects/srcd_aera.asp.
15. “Protecting Investment in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.” American Educational Research Association. Accessed July 1, 2024. https://www.aera.net/Research-Policy-Advocacy/Issues-and-Initiatives/Protecting-Investment-in-the-Social-and-Behavioral-Sciences.
16. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (form 990). American Educational research Association. 2022. Part I, Lines 8-12.
17. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (form 990). American Educational research Association. 2022. Part I, Lines 13-18.
18. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (form 990). American Educational research Association. 2022. Part VIII, Lines 2a-2b.
19. Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax (form 990). American Educational research Association. 2022. Part VIII, Line 1e.
20. “Felice J. Levine, Phd: Biographical Statement.” House Appropriations Committee, 2012. https://appropriations.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/republicans-appropriations.house.gov/files/migrated/UploadedFiles/03.22.12_CJS_-_Members_and_Outside_Witnesses_-_Felice_J._Levine_-_Biography.pdf.