Terrance L. Green is one of just five recipients selected for the 2020 William T. Grant Scholars awards. Launched in 1982, the Scholars Program supports the professional development of promising researchers in the social, behavioral, and health sciences who have received their terminal degrees within the past seven years.
Green is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy in the College of Education at the University of Texas at Austin. His scholars research will examine whether and how local racial equity policies can address persistent and unequal educational outcomes of Black students.
Green’s three-phase study will:
- analyze 160 school districts’ racial equity policies to determine whether policy components cluster in certain districts and the extent to which district characteristics predict classes that share similar racial equity policies;
- estimate the associations between racial equity policies and Black students’ educational outcomes; and
- explore how racial equity policies were developed and implemented, as well as the various school contexts that support their impacts. Green is a qualitative researcher with expertise on school leadership, family-community engagement, and gentrification.
To develop expertise in quantitative methods and content knowledge in educational policy analysis and effects, Green will confer with an advisory panel on quantitative methods and meet monthly with his mentors, Robert Crosnoe, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, and Janelle Scott, professor of education policy at the University of California, Berkeley.
“Dr. Green’s selection as a W.T. Grant Scholar is a testament to his outstanding record of scholarship in his seven years on faculty at UT-Austin,” says Victor Saenz, chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy. “This grant award will help to advance his important research that is reshaping the educational environments for students through a critical equity lens.”
“We’re proud of Dr. Green’s accomplishment. This is a competitive and prestigious award and Dr. Green is very deserving,” says Alexandra Loukas, interim associate dean for research and graduate studies.
Scholars receive $350,000 to execute rigorous five-year research plans that stretch their skills and knowledge into new disciplines, content areas, or methods. As they commence their projects, they build mentoring relationships with experts in areas pertinent to their development, and further their research and professional development through annual retreats and workshops with fellow Scholars, Foundation staff, and other senior researchers.
Green is the second scholar in recent years chosen from the College of Education. Julie Maslowsky was one of three researchers chosen for the honor in 2017. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education.
The foundation’s senior vice president Vivian Tseng says, “We are excited to welcome these outstanding early career researchers to the William T. Grant Scholars Program. They are stretching their content and methodological expertise in new and exciting ways to address problems of inequality and improving the use of research evidence. By supporting their research agendas and professional development, the William T. Grant Scholars Program seeks to contribute to a bright new generation of scholars who will bring rigorous research to youth policies, programs, and practices in the U.S.”
Other recipients:
- Manasi Deshpande, an assistant professor in the department of Economics at the University of Chicago.
- Sarah Ketchen Lipson, an assistant professor in the department of Health Law Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health.
- Jayanti Owens, an assistant professor of sociology and international and public affairs at Brown University, in the department of Sociology and Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
- Valerie B. Shapiro is an associate professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.
Each year, the foundation selects new William T. Grant Scholars from a highly competitive pool of applicants who are nominated by their institutions. The applications are reviewed by a selection committee of prominent senior academics. A small group of finalists is invited to New York for interviews.
