1. Proposal Review Schedule. Thank you for your submissions! The
submission system for the 2013 annual meeting in San Francisco (Saturday,
April 27 - Wednesday, May 1) is now closed. Each proposal will be reviewed
by three people during August and sessions will be created in September
and October. Official notification of acceptances and rejections occurs
November 1.

2. AERA Interim Deputy Executive Director. As you already probably know,
Phoebe Stevenson, who has been Felice Levine's Deputy Executive Director
for many years, has left AERA for a position at George Washington
University. The interim Deputy Excutive Director is Arnita Jones while
AERA seeks a person to fill the position.

3. Paper Repository. Papers from the 2010 and 2011 annual meetings are
available online on the AERA website. Click on "Publications" at the top
of the AERA main page and then on "Online Paper Repository." You must be a
member of AERA to access papers.

4. Division H VP Initiatives. In addition to our regular committee
activities, we are engaged in several additional activities. Please let me
know if you have input on any of the following or would like to suggest
other initiatives that would benefit Div H members.

4a. AERA Centennial. 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of AERA. Div H is
very interested in planning activities surrounding this event since AERA
was founded by directors of research and assessment in schools. Past VPs
Mary Yakimowski, [email protected], and Joe O'Reilly,
[email protected], will be coordinating our suggestions.

4b. Program Analysis. At the AERA Council meeting in June, there was a
general consensus that it would be useful for divisions and SIGs to
analyze submissions for topics and submitters to make sure we're covering
important topics and ensuring that all relevant voices are being heard.
The Program Committee will undertake this analysis as part of it's regular
session development.

4c. Affirmative Action Committee Name Change. Winona Vesey, chair of the
AA Committee, has suggested Div H consider changing the name of this
committee. At least one other division, Division L, changed the name to
Diversity and Equity to be more descriptive of current activities and to
have broader appeal. Winona is researching the implications of a name
change.

4d. Website. AERA redid it's website; it went online last March. Div H is
in the process of revising old website content and adding content to fit
the templates for divisions.

4e. Local Educator's Program. AERA has a program to provide a one-day
complimentary registration to the annual meeting for practitioners. (This
program, incidentally, was proposed by Joe O'Reilly, a past VP for Div H.)
Paul LeMahieu is coordinating this effort for Div H for next year. If you
have contacts for local practitioners in the San Francisco area, please
contact him at [email protected].

4f. Graduate Students. In addition to the two monetary dissertation
awards, coffee mentoring, and early career mentoring grants, at the annual
meeting in Vancouver this year we awarded $50 to all graduate student
members of Div H who presented a paper in any division or SIG. We intend
to continue this next year in San Francisco.

4g. International Members. Our International Committee, chaired by Whitney
Bortz, [email protected], and Brucu Kaniskan,
[email protected], are readhing out to international members in
several ways. The committee has coordinated excellent invited sessions in
the past (and have another great one planned for San Francisco), and last
year we sponsored an international reception. We intend to do the same
next year.

5. 2012-2013 Initiatives From AERA President, Bill Tierney. Bill invites
input on all of the following.

5a. Human Rights and Academic Life. AERA has for many years been involved
in several human rights activities--American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), Human Rights Coalition, and most recently,
the Scholars at Risk Network (SAR) program. SAR is an international
network of universities and colleges committed to promoting academic
freedom and defending the human rights of scholars worldwide. AERA will
cross-post SAR's action alerts, and Bill encourages you to get involved by
offering to bring a scholar to your campus, write letters when there is an
action alert, and consider volunteering on the various task forces.

5b. Evaluating Education Research, Scholarship, and Teaching.
Postsecondary institutions are going through significant changes
pertaining to tenure, promotion, scholarship, and teaching. Jim
Fairweather, Michigan State University, is chairing a task force on this
issue.

5c. Working Conditions for Contingent Faculty. The fastest growing group
in postsecondary education is non-tenure-track adjunct faculty. Little is
known about the sorts of support these individuals are receiving or need
to receive to be effective teachers, researchers, and scholars. Professor
Adrianna Kezar, University of Southern California, is chairing a task
force to investigate this topic.

6. AERA Grants Program. The AERA Grants Program is accepting proposals for
its two research initiatives, with a deadline of September 19, 2012. These
programs provide small grants and training for researchers who conduct
studies of education policy and practice using quantitative methods,
including the analysis of data from the large-scale data sets sponsored by
National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the National Science
Foundation (NSF). For more information visit the AERA website at
www.aera.net/grantsprogram. You may also contact George Wimberly at
[email protected] or (202) 238-3200.