25 July 2012

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Bridget Lewis, Office:817-272-3317, Cell:214-577-9094, blewis@uta.edu

The honor comes with a $55,000 award to further Gildersleeve’s research, specifically for his project, “Discourse and Opportunity: Undocumented Students and Higher Education Policy.”

He was one of 20 fellows selected from a field of 170 applicants.

“This study will help policy-makers and the broader public understand the consequences to current and proposed policies in more complex ways,” said Gildersleeve, who is also director of the Center for K-16 Education Policy and Research in the College of Education and Health Professions. “I am interested in taking policies apart and exposing their unrecognized, masked or hidden assumptions, which often result in unintended consequences not only for the policy itself, but for how we understand the problems that policies seek to address”

Jeanne Gerlach, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions, said Gildersleeve’s selection by the National Academy of Education is evidence of the top-tier research underway within the college.

“It is our goal to analyze and publicize best practices and policies within the national education community,” she said. “Dr. Gildersleeve’s research is focused on one of the most significant issues of our time – do we as a nation provide educational opportunity for undocumented students and to what end.”

Hilda Borko, chair of the Postdoctoral Selection Committee at the Academy, said “The fellowships enhance the future of education research by developing new talent in the many disciplines and fields represented by the scholars we’ve selected."

The fellowships are the oldest source of support for education research, nationally or internationally, for recent recipients of the doctorate.

Last year, Gildersleeve earned the John B. Muir Editor Award from the National Association for College Admission Counseling, for his research into the college access and immigration issue.

“Educational opportunity is a fundamental concern of contemporary society,” Gildersleeve said. “It has implications for who gets to participate in democracy, how, and under what conditions.”

The University of Texas at Arlington is a comprehensive research institution with nearly 33,500 students in the heart of North Texas. Visit www.uta.edu to learn more.