Three (3) doctoral-level research assistants are sought to assist in a four-year, federally-funded research study being conducted in Oakland ISD (near Detroit). Research assistants will receive tuition and fees remission (up to 9 credits), health benefits, and a monthly stipend of about $1800 for a 9-month appointment at 20 hours per week. Travel costs for research activities will be reimbursed.
Required qualifications include a master’s degree in education or a related field, at least 3 years of experience as an elementary school teacher, a strong interest in classroom writing instruction and writing research, and excellent oral and written communication, time management, and collaboration skills. If interested, please contact Dr. Gary Troia at gtroia@msu.edu. This is an excellent opportunity for doctoral students interested in elementary classroom writing to develop deep bench knowledge about research and practice in the area and offers the potential for developing a research agenda and data collection and analysis within a large-scale project.
Project WIPMAGS (Writing Instructional Practices for Multidimensional Achievement and Growth in Students) aims to answer the following research questions: 1. What is the nature of writing instruction and assessment in 4th and 5th grade classrooms? 2. How much variability in 4th and 5th grade students’ rate of annual growth in writing knowledge, motivation, and performance is explained by observed classroom writing instruction and assessment practices? 3. To what degree do (a) teacher experience, (b) teacher writing ability, (c) teacher pedagogical content knowledge, (d) teaching efficacy beliefs, (e) teacher attitudes toward the Common Core writing standards and associated assessments, and (f) alignment between the content of standards and classroom curriculum materials and the content of the assessments and classroom curriculum materials moderate the relationship between teacher practices and rate of annual growth in student outcomes? 4. How are (a) initial status and (b) rate of annual growth in writing knowledge, motivation, and performance related, and (c) to what degree does initial status affect rate of annual growth?