PA Students Receive EPPS Scholarships

Congratulations to the following UT Dallas Public Affairs students who were recently recognized with academic scholarships from the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences.

• Laura Jackson and Dhriti Pandya received the Larry D. Terry Emerging Leaders Scholarship. The scholarship was established in 2006 in memory of Dr. Larry D. Terry and funded by gifts from Dr. Terry's family, faculty colleagues, former students and friends. Dr. Terry was a renowned scholar in the fields of public administration and political science, as well as an acclaimed author. 
• Paola Cantarelli received the Vibhooti Shukla Graduate Fellowship. This fellowship was established in 1993 by Professor Shukla’s husband, Satchit Srinivasan, friends and colleagues in her memory. Professor Shukla was a member of the EPPS faculty at the time of her death in a ballooning accident.
• Jennifer Colunga received the Keith Lankford Taylor Fellowship, which was established in 2012 to support graduates students in EPPS.

No Child Left Behind Study Makes Headlines

Nearly a decade after the implementation of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that NCLB has negatively impacted the teaching profession by eroding job satisfaction and work commitment.  Yet, a recent study co-authored by James R. Harrington, an assistant professor of public affairs at UT Dallas,  has challenged conventional wisdom on NCLB.

The article, with Jason A. Grissom of Vanderbilt University and Sean Nicholson-Crotty of Indiana University as lead authors, was published recently in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Using four waves of the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey, they find evidence that the law has negatively affected perceptions of teacher cooperation but positively affected feelings of classroom control and administrator support. Overall, they find little evidence that teacher job satisfaction or commitment has changed in response to NCLB.

The findings have made headlines in numerous mainstream publications, including the Huffington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The Atlantic.