Elizabeth Albro, commissioner of education research at the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education, recently shared her vision of how the National Center for Education Research (NCER) is advancing the education sciences.
Albro’s Dec. 5 presentation at Carolyn Pope Edwards Hall, “Transforming the Education Sciences Together,” was part of the 20th-anniversary celebration of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools.
Albro provided an overview of IES and outlined its growth, development and annual goals — and how research by CYFS fits into that growth and development.
She noted that in the past 20 years, IES has provided 24 awards to the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, totaling $56.6 million. Of those grants, she said, 71% went to CYFS.
Albro thanked CYFS for its role in supporting research that expands knowledge on early childhood, particularly in rural contexts.
Sue Sheridan, founding director of CYFS, thanked the center’s faculty, affiliates and research teams for their hard work and dedication over the past two decades, and their “ongoing commitment to excellence.”
“You are among the most inspiring and provocative thinkers, drivers and achievers that I have ever met,” she said. “It has been my privilege to learn with and from you over the past 20 years. Not only do you make all of our collective work more exciting, and you also make our world a better place.”
Sheridan also thanked the CYFS staff.
“You are our backbone,” she said. “Every single one of you has made an incredible contribution, and we could not have realized the depth, breadth and scale of our impacts without you.”
Other speakers of the event included Nick Pace, interim dean of the College of Education and Human Sciences; Jennifer Nelson, UNL interim vice chancellor for research and innovation; and Mike Zeleny, UNL vice chancellor of business and finance.
Pace said the center is an integral part of CEHS, and that its work helps “achieve our mission and goals every day.”
“Your collaborative spirit at CYFS is crucial to achieving the best outcomes for research, and for the research-practice-policy connection,” he said. “Your willingness to build connections with people in schools, agencies and communities — both urban and rural — and really listen to the challenges they face, helps ensure the research coming out of the center and the college will continue to change lives for the better.”
Nelson noted that the center’s life-changing work demonstrates the “deep-rooted innovation, creativity and commitment that is cherished across the University of Nebraska system.”
“Your efforts make significant differences in so many lives,” Nelson said. “As you move forward, your foundation is stronger than ever.”
Zeleny congratulated CYFS on its sustained success, highlighting the center’s role in establishing the university as a leading research institution.
“There have been some seminal moments in the university’s history,” he said. “I think when the history of this university is told, one of the things that will become known is that the university truly became a research university along with the building of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools.”
