About the Pre-Doctoral Training Program

The University of Chicago is home to an exciting intellectual
environment for the study of education sciences in which a diverse community of students, faculty and practitioners are collaborating to conduct research and design practices relevant to solving urgent national problems in education. Education Sciences at the University comprise an expanding group of world-class faculty and practitioners from disciplines, professional schools and centers across the University. The interdisciplinary Committee on Education, with its close affiliation with the University’s Urban Education Institute and UChicago STEM Education, form the cornerstone for this work and place the University of Chicago in an ideal position to effectively codevelop research and practice.

As a part of this commitment to interdisciplinary educational training, the Committee on Education is pleased to offer a fellowship program to support students interested in pursuing educational research while they are training for a doctoral degree in a related discipline. Participating departments in the Division of the Social Sciences include the Departments of Comparative Human Development, Economics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. PhD students in the Harris School and the School of Social Service Administratioin are also invited to apply for this fellowship. Students accepted as Committee on Education Fellows participate in a community of scholarship and research focused on urban education through our weekly Education Workshop and related events , and by engaging with a number of associated initiatives such as Successful Pathways from School to Work. Accepted fellows received an award of $3,000 per year over five years that is paid in addition to the stipend and tuition waiver that students receive from their respective department. Fellows can also apply for additional support for research and travel from the Successful Pathways program.

Pursuing graduate work in education at the University of Chicago provides students with the unique opportunity to both pursue on-the-ground educational research and participate in developing clinical practice, while at the same time gaining the deep and rigorous training in a discipline necessary to succeed in academe. As a result, our fellows graduate well-prepared to pursue a wide variety of academic and non-academic research positions. Fellows have obtained placements in a vast range of research institutions, from appointments in traditional disciplinary faculties at leading universities to posts in more clinically-oriented schools of education and administration, as well as obtaining positions as research officers at private research institutions and nonprofit foundations. More information on the current activities of our past and current fellows can be found here. 

Our Committee on Education Fellows program builds upon prior, highly successful programs funded by a federal grant from the Institute of Education Sciences. The IES Program at the University of Chicago began in 2005, and provided funding for [3] cohorts of graduate students from 2005-2016. The time frame of this federal grant having now elapsed, the Committee on Education is pleased to continue providing the additional funding and research opportunities that this grant made possible via the Committee on Education fellowship described above. [Prospective graduate students interested in taking part in this program should apply to one of the participating departments listed above, and [then subsequently] email the Program Recruitment Director, Lisa Rosen, at rosen@uchicago.edu . We will then contact you with more information on how to apply.]

Program Director:
Stephen Raudenbush, Lewis-Sebring Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and Chair, Committee on Education, University of Chicago, sraudenb@uchicago.edu

Program Co-Director:
Elaine Allensworth, Director of the Chicago Consortium for School Research, Urban Education Institute, University of Chicago, elainea@uchicago.edu

Program Recruitment Director:
Lisa Rosen rosen@uchicago.edu