American Educational Research Association (AERA) and National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) 2025

Presentations, papers, panel discussions, roundtables, and mentoring sessions featuring Simmons professors and doctoral students participating in the 2025 AERA Conference can be found below. Complete information, as well as general conference information, is available at the 2025 AERA Annual Meeting website and the 2025 NCME Annual Conference website.

Wednesday, April 23

• 9:00am to 10:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Bi-/Multilingual Teacher Education: Critical Consciousness, Ideology and Race

  Caitie Dougherty (SMU)- Chair
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  
  

• 9:00am to 10:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Fostering Learning, Data Use, and Action for Organizational Change

  Kim Nelson Pryor (SMU)- Discussant
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 2D
  
  

• 9:00am to 10:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: From Barriers, to Strategies, to Impact: Illuminating Transfer Pathways in Higher Education

  Charity Lewallen (SMU)- Chair
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 3D
  
  

• 10:50am to 12:20pm (MDT)

  AERA: Symposium: A School-University Research Practice Partnership: Why, How and What's Next

  Stephanie L. Knight (SMU)- Discussant, Annie Wright (SMU)- Chair
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 111
  
  

• 10:50am to 12:20pm (MDT)

  AERA: In Symposium: A University-School-Community Partnership to Expand Access to Out of School Time (OST) Programs

  Dylan E. Farmer (SMU, Annie Wright (SMU), Elisa Gallegos (SMU), Harvey Luna (SMU), Greg Macpherson (Big Thought), Shannon Epner (Big Thought), Kristina Cola (Big Thought), Larry Featherston (DISD)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 111
  
  

• 10:50am to 12:20pm (MDT)

  AERA: In Symposium: A Four-Way Partnership for STEM Learning

  Karen Pierce (SMU), Annie Wright (SMU), Marc Sager (SMU), Jessica Murillo (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 111
  
  

• 10:50am to 12:20pm (MDT)

  AERA: In Symposium: A University-School Partnership to Promote Scientific Argumentation among Emergent Bilingual Students

  Jeanna R. Wieselmann (SMU), Ashley M. Lozano (DISD), J. Kyle Roberts (SMU), Muhammad Guntur Purwanto (U of M)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 111
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Learning with Multiple Representations of Simple Oscillation in a Web-based Embodied Learning Environment: Analyzing Behavioral Markers

  Jiabao Wen (SMU), Jonathan Isaac (SMU), Prajakt Pande (SMU), Lin Lipsmeyer (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Mile High Ballroom 2A and 3A
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Symposium: Exploring Technologies for Supporting High Schoolers' Embodied Geometric Reasoning and Spatial Skills

  Kelsey E. Schenck (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 709
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Poster Session: Geometric Exploration Using Virtual Reality Goggles in Mathematics Teacher Education

  Julianna Claiborne Washington (SMU), Candace A. Walkington (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Poster Session: Play to Learn: Improving Middle School Students' Computational Thinking Through Game-Based Learning

  Yanjun Pan (SMU), Ching-Yu Tseng (SMU), Lawrence J. Klinkert (SMU, Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller (SMU), Eric C. Larson (SMU), Corey Clark (CMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Poster Session: The Effect of DGS Access on Embodied Geometric Reasoning: An Experiment

  Doy Kim, (UW-Madison), Kelsey E. Schenck (SMU), Fangli Xia (UW-Madison), Michael I. Swart (UW-Madison), Candace A. Walkington (SMU), Mitchell J. Nathan (UW-Madison)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Same Storm, Different Boat: Student Homelessness Amid Natural Disaster

  Mai Zaru (SMU), Cheyenne Phillips (SMU), Shanae Neal (SMU), Shanea Neal (SMU), Meredith Paige Richards (SMU), Kessa Roberts (USU), Alexandria E. Pavlakis (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 12:40pm to 2:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Paradigm Wars II: The Ongoing Struggle between Machine Learning and Classical Statistical Modeling

  J. Kyle Roberts (SMU), Ellen Taylor (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 703
  
  

• 2:30pm to 4:00pm (MDT)

  AERA: Symposium: CLASS 2nd Edition: Findings from Reliability and Predictive Validity Study

  Dylan E. Farmer (SMU), Dawn Manaster Levy (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room, Room 404
  
  

• 4:20pm to 5:50pm (MDT)

  AERA: Poster Session: Teachers as Informants in Participatory Design for Game-Based Learning

  Yanjun Pan (SMU), Ching-Yu (SMU), Hao He (ESU), Leanne R. Ketterlin-Geller (SMU), Eric C. Larson (SMU), Corey Clark (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 4:20pm to 5:50pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: The Relationship between Regional Accreditors and Transfer Student Graduate Rates: An Exploratory Quantitative Analysis

  Charity Lewallen (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 2E
  
  

• 4:20pm to 5:50pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: "Walk in My Shoes": The Worlds of Adult Learners Experiencing Homelessness at an Addiction Recovery Shelter

  Mai Zaru (SMU), Alexandra E. Pavlakis (SMU), Margaret Hall (UNO), Michelle Friend (UNO)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 608
  
  

Thursday, April 24

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: DLI (Dual Language Immersion) Teacher's Ideologies about Translanguaging Pedagogies and Writing Instruction

  Maricela Leon (SMU), Quentin Sedlacek (SMU), Mahjabin Chowdhury (A&M), Amy Gillespie Rouse (UQ), Keller Young (UI), Xinjie Chen (CUHK)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: Model Based Detection of Passage Bias in Oral Reading Fluency Assessments

  Gozde Sirganci- Presenter (SMU), Yusuf Kara (UM), Joseph F.T. Nese (UO), Akihito Kamata (SMU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room AB
  
  

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: Information Functions of Model-based Oral Reading Fluency

  Xin Qiao- Presenter (USF), Cornelis Potgieter (TCU), Akihito Kamata (SMU), Paul David Foster (SMU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room CD
  
  

• 9:45am to 11:15am (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: IRT Scoring and Rating Methods

  Annette Vernon (UI)- Chair, Gozde Sirganci (SMU)- Discussant
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Denver Ballroom, Lower Level 2, Room 3
  
  

• 9:45am to 11:15am (MDT)

  NCME: Innovation Demonstration Session: On-the-Fly Context Personalization of Mathematics Word Problems through Generative AI (Context-AI)

  Burcu Arslan (ETS)- Presenter, Candace Walkington (SMU), Jesse Sparks (ETS), Matthew Bernacki (UNC-CH)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room GH
  
  

• 9:50am to 11:20am (MDT)

  AERA: Symposium: Leveraging AI and Virtual Characters in Education: Insights and Impacts for Student Motivation

  Candace A. Walkington (SMU)- Discussant
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 2C
  
  

• 11:30am to 1:00pm (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: Exploring Fairness of Next-Generation Items: Differential Item Action Analysis on Process Data

  Yusuf Kara (UM)- Presenter, Gozde Sirganci (SMU), Xin Qiao (USF), Akihito Kamata (SMU), Sarunya Somsong (SWU & SMU), Michael Fong (SMU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room CD
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: Use of Natural Language Processing in Automated Scoring of Prosodic Reading Ability

  Kuo Wang (SMU)- Presenter, Yusuf Kara (UM), Akihito Kamata (SMU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Denver Ballroom, Room 5-6
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  NCME: Graduate Student Electronic Board Session

  Joanne Joo (SMU)- Presenter, Leanne Ketterlin Geller (SMU), Sarah Powell (UT-Austin), Erica Lembke (MU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room GH
  
  

• 1:45pm to 3:15pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Follow the Money: Assessing Philanthropy in U.S. Higher Education Organizations, 2003- 2023

  Sondra Nicole Barringer (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 2F
  
  

• 1:45pm to 3:15pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: "Improvements", What "Didn't Go So Well" and Down Right "Failures" Guiding Preservice Teachers in Reflection on the Challenges of Classroom Teaching

  Molly Novelli (SMU), Juliana Okonya (UT Austin), Flavio S. Azevedo (SMU), Maximilian Sherard (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 3G
  
  

• 3:15pm to 4:15pm (MDT)

  NCME: Individual Paper Session: Automated Scoring of Long Essays

  Kuo Wang (SMU)- Presenter, Haowei Hua (The Culver Academies), Pengfei Yan (UM), Hong Jiao (UMD), Dan Song (UI)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room 4
  
  

• 3:35pm to 5:05pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Digital Front Porch: A Content Analysis of Virtual Campus Tours

  Author- Michael S. Harris (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center: Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  
  

Friday, April 25

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Poster Session: “Understanding Middle School Students' Design Thinking during STEM Activities

  Gillian Roehrig (U of M), Muhammad Guntur Purwanto (U of M), Jeanna R. Wieselmann (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: A Critical Discourse Analysis of University President Responses to Student Protests

  Molly Novelli (SMU), Max Edward Love (UT Austin)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Comparing Teacher Candidates' Instruction During Simulated Writing Conferences Across Literacy and Writing Methods Courses

  Murphy Young (UI), Amy Gillespie Rouse ( UQ), Diane Baty Gifford (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 9:50am to 11:20am (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: How FAST (Financial Aid for Swift Transfer) is Too Fast: Examining Dual Enrollment Policy Implementation in Texas

  Frank Fernandez (UW), Xiaodan Hu (SMU), Marissa R. Moreno (Lee College), Guillermo Ortega (TTU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom 2E
  
  

• 11:40am to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Comic as a Professional Development Tool on PK-12 Student Homelessness

  Shanea Neal (SMU), Shanae Neal (SMU), Cheyenne Phillips (SMU), Mai Zaru (SMU), Alexandrea Pavlakis (SMU), Kessa Roberts (USU), Meredith Paige Richards (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  
  

• 11:40am to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Virtual vs. In-Person Professional Development for Teachers: Balancing Benefits and Tradeoffs

  Joanne Joo (SMU), Emily A. Short (SMU), Clinton Moore (UT), Syeda Sharjina Akther (UT Austin), Sarah Mae Olivar (AIR), Cassandra Hatfield (SMU), Leanne Ketterlin-Geller (SMU), Sarah R. Powell (UT Austin), Erica S. Lembke (MU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Equity in STEM Pathways: Machine Learning for Predicting Underrepresented Students' STEM Major Choices

  Gozde Sirganci (SMU)- Chair, Yanjun Pan (SMU), Can Mese (IU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: With a Few Dollars More: Examining Community College Merit Aid, Enrollment, and Transfer

  Xiaodan Hu (SMU), Frank Fernandez (UW Madison), Matt Capaldi (UF)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 3:15pm to 4:15pm (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: A Machine Learning Approach for Predicting Underrepresented Students' STEM Major Choices

  Gozde Sirganci (SMU), Yanjun Pan (SMU), Can Mese (IU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Penrose Ballroom 1
  
  

Saturday, April 26

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: The Effect of Project GROW: Shared Book Reading to Improve Young Childrens' Social and Emotional Vocabulary

  J. Kyle Roberts (SMU), Mai Zaru (SMU), Stephanie Al Otaiba (SMU), Dayna Russell Freudenthal (SMU), Laura McCormack (SMU), Willa van Dijk (USU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  NCME: Paper Session: Modeling Variational DIF for Different Ability Levels with Moderated Mediation Approach

  Gozde Sirganci (SMU)- Presenter, Yusuf Kara (UM), Michael Fong (SMU), Akihito Kamata (SMU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Denver Ballroom, Room 1-2
  
  

• 9:50am to 11:20am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Dual Language Teaching in the Age of AI: Bilingual Educators' Perspectives

  Magdalena Pando (SMU), Maricela Leon (SMU), Karla Del Rosal (SMU), Catie Dougherty (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  
  

• 9:50am to 11:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Building Trust in the Science of Education: A Replication Study of a Mathematics Intervention

  Leanne R. Ketterlin Geller (SMU), Sarah R. Powell (UT Austin), Erica S. Lembke (MU), Andrew P. Swanlund (AIR)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  
  

• 9:50am to 11:20am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Scientific Argumentation and Translanguaging Among Seventh Graders: A Mixed-Methods Study

  Jeanna R. Wieselmann (SMU), Ashley M. Lozano (Dallas ISD), J. Kyle Roberts (SMU), Muhammad Guntur Purwanto (U of M)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  
  

• 11:30am to 1:00pm (MDT)

  NCME: Graduate Student Electronic Board Session: Using A Mixture Speed and Accuracy Model to Diagnose Oral Reading Fluency

  Paul David Foster (SMU)- Presenter, Yusuf Kara (UM), Akihito Kamata (SMU)
  The Hilton Denver City Center, Colorado Ballroom, Room GH,
  
  

• 11:40pm to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: In Event: The Racialized Nature of Advanced Placement in Minority White Schools

  Brianna R. Freshwater (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 303
  
  

• 11:40am to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Undergraduate courses under-depict the real-world diversity of STEM scholars

  Quentin Sedlacek (SMU), Sara Dozer (CSU), Anthony Muro Villa (UC), Michelle Friend (UN), Heather Haeger (U of A), Karla Lomeli (SCU), Joel Alejandro Mejia (UC), Greses Perez (TU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 106
  
  

• 11:40am to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: The Development and Continued Evolution of HSIs

  Charity Lewallen (SMU)- Chair
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 2F
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: From Desegregated Schools to Diverse Communities? Novel Evidence on an Old Debate

  Cheyenne Phillips (SMU), Meredith Page Richards (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: How Generative Artificial Intelligence Affects Student Collaboration: A Network Analysis of Higher Education Assignments

  Yi-Chen Juan (NYCU), Yuan-Hsuan Le (NTHU), Jiun-Yu Wu (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 709
  
  

• 1:30pm to 3:00pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Multiple Perspectives in World History: Participatory Action Research Addressing Instruction on Israel-Palestine in Texas

  Jennifer D. Sayed (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 711
  
  

• 3:20pm to 4:50pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Effectiveness of Chatbot-Enabled Interventions in K-16 Education: A Systematic Review

  Zhongrui Yao (FHSU), Yanjun Pan (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 4
  
  

• 3:20pm to 4:50pm (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Impacts of School Policy on Teen Smartphone Usage: A Tale of Two Schools

  Deborah Cockerham (UNT), Lin Lipsmeyer (SMU), Tandra L. Tyler-Wood (UNT)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  
  

• 3:20pm to 4:50pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: The Intersection of Knowledge and Engagement: Community Partners' Experiences with a Place-Based Community Engagement Program

  Sondra Nicole Barringer (SMU), Dustin Grabsch (SMU), Kalkidan Desta (SMU), Caitlin Anderson (SMU), Sakshi Hinduja (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom Room 2F
  
  

Sunday, April 27

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Exploring Youth Epistemic Agency and Creativity in a Sandbox Computational Data Mining Workshop

  Justice Toshiba Walker, (UTEP), Seyedahmad Rahimi (UF), Amanda Barany (Penn), Lin Lipsmeyer (SMU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 8:00am to 9:30am (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Teachers' Perceptions of Using Generative AI Mathematics Problems in Online Curricula

  Candace A. Walkington (SMU), Katie Bainbridge (RU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 103
  
  

• 9:50am to 11:20am (MDT)

  AERA: Roundtable Session: Decision-making in Special Education Mathematics: What, when, and how are teachers making instructional decisions?

  Emily Singell (MU), Gabriella Lyth Donofrio (MU), Allison Dennis (SMU), Lois Ndungu (SMU), Jessica Mao (UT Austin), Erica S. Lembke (MU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Ballroom Level, Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  
  

• 11:40am to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Poster Session: "I Learned a Lot, But...": Preservice Elementary Teachers' Integrated STEM Teaching Self-efficacy and Perceived Challenges

  Deepika Menon (UNL), Jeanna R. Wieselmann (SMU), Allison Johnson (UNL), Brynn Price (SMU), Sumreen Asim (IU), Sarah A. Haines (TU)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Exhibit Hall Level, Exhibit Hall F
  
  

• 11:40am to 1:10pm (MDT)

  AERA: Paper Session: Alliances for Epistemic Agency: Exploring Hidden Affordances of Modeling Infrastructures

  Ashleyn Pierson (OSU), Corey Brady (SMU), Kathryn Lanouette (CWM)
  The Colorado Convention Center, Floor: Terrace Level, Bluebird Ballroom 3C