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Zamarro Named Journal Editor
Gema Zamarro was recently named an editor of the Education Finance and Policy Journal. She is one of three new journal editors introduced at the Association for Education Finance and Policy annual conference.
"For over 15 years, AEFP has been a place where I have received thoughtful feedback, built meaningful relationships and grown as a scholar in education policy," Zamarro said. "Because of that, I have felt a strong desire to give back to the organization and to support the community that has shaped so much of my professional journey."
"Gema's selection as an editor of Education Finance and Policy reflects both the quality of her research and her deep engagement with the most pressing issues in education policy," said Harry Patrinos, head of the Department of Education Reform. "For us, this is an important milestone, one that signals that our department continues to shape the field by producing work that is not only methodologically strong, but directly relevant to policymakers."
Read the Arkansas News article here.
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McGee Receives Superior
Service Award
Josh B. McGee was selected by the College of Education and Health Professions for the Superior Service Award based on the extraordinary amount and quality of his professional service to Arkansas, the university, the college, the Department of Education Reform, and national policy organizations in 2025.
He served as chair of the Arkansas Education Funding Task Force, advises the University of Arkansas Data Science Program, serves as a member of the University Research Reproducibility and Replicability Committee, and serves on the college’s Service to Arkansas Committee and the Department of Education Reform’s Admissions, Fellowship, and Personnel Committees.
Nationally, Dr. McGee serves on the boards of MDRC––Building Knowledge to Improve Social Policy, EdFund, and the Equable Institute—three prominent nonprofit organizations that conduct rigorous research and influence policy in education evaluation, finance, and public pension systems.
Read the Arkansas News Outstanding Faculty story.
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College of Education and Health Professions
Celebrates 'Heroic' Alumni
Department of Education Reform alumna Angela R. Watson, a senior research fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy and an assistant research professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Education, was recognized at the spring awards banquet. She was one of 12 COEHP alumni to receive Outstanding Alumni awards.
The book The Hero Next Door edited by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich includes stories that highlight everyday heroes, describing them as "the risk-takers, the friend-makers, the dreamers and the doers." Dean Kate Mamiseishvili told the crowd that this definition of a hero “perfectly captures the spirit” of the college’s alumni awardees.
“Our alumni heroes take risks, like Angela Watson, who took a leap of faith and returned to school after a 20-year career in a different field to pursue a Ph.D. in education policy," said Mamisheishvili. Read the Leading with Care news story.
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McKenzie Receives Pinnacle Award
Sarah McKenzie was honored by the Provost Office and the Division of Research and Innovation (DRI) during their program to honor the amazing work happening across campus to advance the University’s Research Excellence Strategic Pillar.
The Provost and DRI launched EXCEL-AR, the External Funding Celebration Program, to recognize the inaugural recipients of the Pinnacle and Distinction Medallion Awards. Because funding norms vary across academic disciplines, EXCEL-AR establishes three discipline-specific award categories, each with two tiers of recognition.
Principal and Co-Principal Investigators who have secured significant external funding for the university during the previous calendar year are recognized in the following funding categories: Science and Engineering, Non–Science and Engineering, and Humanities, Arts, and Design.
Dr. McKenzie was recognized with the Pinnacle Award for her work with ATC staff to secure external funding of $1 million or more for Arkansas Teacher Corps.
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Honors College Pulse Panel:
Can Americans Read?
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The COEHP Honors College hosted the Pulse Panel focusing on reading recently. The panel called Can Americans Read highlighted that literacy in the United States has reached a critical point, with about 21% of adults — roughly 45 million people — functionally illiterate, according to 2025 numbers, and that this is not just an education issue. It is an economic one, too. Low literacy costs the U.S. an estimated $2 trillion each year, according to the National Literacy Institute.
"America is facing a literacy crisis that should be treated as a national emergency," said Harry Patrinos, professor and department head, 21st Century Endowed Chair, Department of Education Reform. "Early reading is the foundation of human capital — without it, students struggle to build skills, access jobs and contribute to growth."
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Panelists included:
- Vicki S. Collet, professor, graduate program coordinator, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, College of Education and Health Professions
- Josh McGee, associate professor, 21st Century Endowed Chair, Department of Education Reform, College of Education and Health Professions
- Harry Patrinos, professor and department head, 21st Century Endowed Chair, Department of Education Reform, College of Education and Health Professions
Read the Honors College Article.
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Zamarro Named Research Fellow
Gema Zamarro has been invited and has joined as a new research fellow for the IZA Network at LISER (IZA@LISER), which is a global community of scholars dedicated to excellence in labor economics and related fields.
Zamarro joins a leading international community in labor economics, with over 2000 scholars from around 60 countries. IZA@LISER serves as a vital bridge between academic research and practical policy application.
Established in 1998, IZA has become a leading center in national and international labor market research and policy advice.
Read about IZA Network at LISER.
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Patrinos Honored with Career Connector Award
Harry Patrinos has been recognized for receiving a Career Connector Award for his outstanding efforts in career mentorship and professional development.
This recognition is student-nominated and awarded by the College of Education and Health Professions Career Connections Initiatives office. It celebrates faculty who go above and beyond to help students explore career opportunities, connect classroom learning to real-world skills, and build the confidence they need to succeed in today's workforce.
Read more about Career Connections in Education and Health Professions.
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Wilson, Helal Receive Exceptional Student Awards
The College of Education and Health Professions recently recognized more than 100 exceptional students at the annual Student Awards Banquet. Honorees from across all degree programs were celebrated for achievements ranging from research excellence to outstanding academic performance.
From the Department of Education Reform:
Dr. Taylor Wilson, Best Conference Paper
Al Mansor Helal "Shamim", Outstanding Doctoral Student
Wilson and Helal are pictured above, holding their awards, with Drs. Josh McGee, Jonathan Wai and Harry Patrinos.
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Bennett Completes Mentoring Program
Tom Bennett was recognized recently for completing the Faculty Mentoring Graduate Students Workshop Series. Dr. Bennett serves EDRE as Chief of Staff and Graduate Coordinator.
This university-wide, eight-session series provides faculty with the opportunity to learn best practices in mentoring to inspire, direct and professionally develop graduate mentees and post-docs.
Topics included Graduate School Resources, Understanding International Student Needs, Promoting Self-Efficacy and Independence, and Legal and Ethical Considerations. Seats are limited and the sessions are interactive.
Read more about Faculty Affairs' Mentoring Programs.
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Discovery Institute’s Dr. Keri Ingraham on School Choice & Edu Federalism
Albert Cheng
Some Claim Ed. Schools Are ‘Woke.’ Are They?
Misty Gallo, Robert Maranto
American bargain: Respect all faiths, including Christianity
Robert Maranto
Report: Rate of retention 'high' in state
Josh McGee, Gema Zamarro
Research Highlights Arkansas as National Leader in Teacher Satisfaction; Early Evidence Links Rising Salary to Retention
Josh McGee, Gema Zamarro
Talk Business with Roby Brock - Capitol View Interview with Jacob Oliva, Sarah McKenzie
Sarah McKenzie
UA Scholar Co-Authors Study on Women’s Education Rights in Afghanistan
Harry Patrinos
The Velcro Approach to Scaling in Education
Harry Patrinos
Another deep dive into estimates of economic returns to education
Harry Patrinos
Human Capital Is Climate Policy
Harry Patrinos
Educational Freedom and Flourishing
Harry Patrinos
COVID Learning Retention and Improved Gifted Identification
Jonathan Wai
On the Decline of Elite-Educated Republicans in Congress
Jonathan Wai
The 90/10 gap: Research shows struggling students falling behind since 2005
Patrick Wolf
Democrats put unions over families with public schools bill
Patrick Wolf
School choice programs grow in popularity — and cost
Patrick Wolf
Arkansas law boosted teacher pay — and retention
Gema Zamarro
Minimum pay, maximum impact: Arkansas’s teacher retention strategy
Gema Zamarro, Andrew M. Camp, Josh McGee, Taylor Wilson, & Miranda Vernon
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Who Is Served by Dyslexia
Intervention in Arkansas? Patterns
in Participation and Representation
(2016–2025)
Denise Airola
How Do Arkansas’s Early Childhood Quality Measures Connect to Later Outcomes?
Hannah Denker
Available Space... The Final Frontier. An Empirical Analysis of the Heterogeneous Regulatory Burdens that Oversee Private Schools within States with School Choice Policies
Misty Gallo, Colyn Ritter, Patrick Wolf
Returns to Education in the United States: A Comparison of OLS and Double Machine Learning Methods
Al Mansor Helal, Ryotaro Hiraki, Harry Patrinos
Arkansas Teacher Retention 2025-26: A New Normal
Josh McGee, Roy McKenzie, Gema Zamarro
Political Science Majors Are More Tolerant of Controversial Speech
Robert Maranto, Martha Bradley-Dorsey, Nathanial Bork
The mis-education of women in Afghanistan: from wage premiums to economic losses
Harry Patrinos
Causal returns to education
Harry Patrinos
Social media impacts on Bangladeshi college students
Md Juwel Ahmed Sarker, Robert Maranto
2025 Arkansas Teacher Working Conditions & Wellbeing Survey Report
Taylor Scott, Josh McGee, Meredith Schellhase, Gema Zamarro
New Survey Results Show Arkansas Teachers Report High Satisfaction — With Room to Strengthen Support
Taylor Scott, Josh McGee, Meredith Schellhase, Gema Zamarro
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Click on the link above to see the Department of Education Reform's seven Research Initiatives. | |
Samuel Musser is a Doctoral Academy Fellow, originally hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio. He is completing his second year in the program.
His interests include classical education in the United States, and also the intersection of Career and Technical Education and alternative school pathways with classical education.
His current research includes a project comparing different modes of Latin pedagogy and their effect on Latin proficiency. He is also collaborating to write a report on the long-term outcomes of a classical education.
His research also includes work with fellow doctoral student Temurbek Rakhmatov on a long-term project analyzing the degree to which increased school choice in Arkansas has led to improved outcomes in all types of schools - public, private, charter, etc.
He has presented his research at several conferences this year, including at George Mason University, Florida State University, and in Rome, Italy, at the International School Choice and Reform Conference.
Samuel currently lives and serves in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wonderful wife Carly and their spirited dog Franklin. He enjoys playing tennis and piano in his spare time.
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Anything in red in the newsletter is a link, including the headers --Department of Education Reform, Recent Research and EDRE Research Initiatives.
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The more you know...
The crosswalk at Maple and Arkansas completed renovations recently to improve pedestrian safety. A standard crosswalk does not inherently protect pedestrians from all directions at the same time; the new crosswalk at that intersection does.
The new crosswalk is called a Pedestrian Scramble, also known as Barnes Dance or diagonal crossing, and it stops traffics in all directions so pedestrians can cross all the same time. This intersection is one example of work the City of Fayetteville has completed to enhance crosswalk safety in locations with high vehicular speeds and/or volumes and pedestrian use. It is also part of the city's Active Transportation Plan.
Read the City of Fayetteville's Active Transportation Plan.
| | Pedestrian Scramble means that all vehicular traffic is temporarily halted, giving pedestrians the opportunity to cross safely all at once in any direction, including diagonally, across the intersection. | | | | University of Arkansas | 751 W. Maple St. | Fayetteville, AR 72701 US | | | | |
