Assistantships allow our PhD students to match their professional and academic interests with faculty led research and teaching initiatives. Most assistantships in the College of Education and Social Services involve the assignment of students to assist in faculty led research projects. Some assistantships are funded through external grants. Graduate level assistantships typically provide 10 or 20 hours of paid work experiences coupled with tuition scholarships.
A full-time 9 month assistantship is $24,000/year with 18 credits of full-time study.
Listed below is a summary of faculty led research projects. Prospective students should identify one or two possible assistantship opportunities. Through their application essay, prospective students should identify how their personal and professional experiences to date align well with the assistantship opportunity, as well as what skills they may bring to bear on the projects.
Research Assistantships
Callahan, Rebecca: State Higher Education Policies and Immigrant College Going
Faculty Name: Rebecca Callahan, PhD
Research Project Title: State Higher Education Policies and Immigrant College Going
Description: In this mixed-methods project, we explore how states' policies around immigrant-origin youths' legal status and language proficiency shapes their postsecondary experiences.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required: Interest and experience working with immigrant-origin youth. Methods: Quantitative secondary data analysis, Critical Policiy Analysis, Interviews, Surveys. Strong writing and organizational skills.
Callahan, Rebecca: Organizational Adaptation: The Provision of Services for ML-EL Students and Special Populations in Rural Schools and Districts
Faculty Name: Rebecca Callahan, PhD
Research Project Title: Organizational Adaptation: The Provision of Services for ML-EL Students and other Special Populations in Rural Schools & Districts
Description: In this mixed-methods project, we explore how educators' training to work with special populations informs how their organizations respond to the challenges of providing comprehensive services for ML-ELs and other low-incidence student populationsin rural contexts.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required: Interest, experience with K-12 special populations, either at school or district level (K-12). Methods: Case Study, Interviews, Surveys, Descriptive Statistics. Strong writing skills.
Garnett, Bernice: Catamount Community Schools Collaborative: University-School-Community Partnerships
Faculty Name: Bernice Garnett, ScD
Research Project Title: Catamount Community Schools Collaborative: University-School-Community Partnerships
Description: In this mixed methods project, we will focus on sustainable and mutually transformative structures, policies, and practices of the university-assisted community school model to support rural community school implementation.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with K-12 and University partnership models. Interest, experience with educational policy analysis and community schools. Methods: mixed methods, implementation science, values-based implementation
Garnett, Bernice: Catamount Community Schools Collaborative: University-School-Community Partnerships
Faculty Name: Bernice Garnett, ScD
Research Project Title: Catamount Community Schools Collaborative: University-School-Community Partnerships
Description: In this mixed methods project, we will focus on sustainable and mutually transformative structures, policies, and practices of the university-assisted community school model to support rural community school implementation.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with K-12 and University partnership models. Interest, experience with educational policy analysis and community schools. Methods: mixed methods, implementation science, values-based implementation
Killeen, Kieran: Family Spending on Supplemental Education Activities for Children
Faculty Name: Kieran Killeen, PhD
Research Project Title: Family Spending on Supplemental Education Activities for Children
Description: In this collaborative project with Tom Downes (Tufts University), we seek to identify the determinants of family spending on enrichment activities like sports, tutoring and lessons. We specifically examine whether local school conditions including spending levels influence family spending behaviors.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with K-12 education issues particularly education policy analysis. Methods: quantitative analytic methods, data science, econometrics. (Not accepting PhD students for AY25-26)
McCluskey, Matthew: Education Reform and the Rise of Education Consultants
Faculty Name: Matthew McCluskey, PhD
Research Project Title: Education Reform and the Rise of Education Consultants
Description: In this mixed-methods project, we explore the understudied phenomenon of educational consulting - who the stakeholders are, what services they provide, and their potential impacts (or lack thereof) to educational policy and practice.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with PK-12 public education. Methods: Case study, interviews, content analysis, discourse analysis, Critical Policy Analysis, ethnographic observation, document analysis. Strong writing and organizational skills.
Faculty Name: McCluskey, Matthew
Research Project Title: Vermont Rural Education Hub
Description: Our multi-method study has three aims: 1) develop robust understanding of the state of public education in Vermont; 2.) build a Vermont educational leadership and policy research hub at UVM and 3.) connect and support rural educational leaders across the state.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with rural PK-12 schools, districts, or Unions. Methods: Case study, interviews, focus groups, document analysis. Strong writing and organizational skills.
McCluskey, Matthew: Vermont Rural Education Hub
Faculty Name: Matthew McCluskey, PhD
Research Project Title: Vermont Rural Education Hub
Description: Our multi-method study has three aims: 1) develop robust understanding of the state of public education in Vermont; 2.) build a Vermont educational leadership and policy research hub at UVM and 3.) connect and support rural educational leaders across the state.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with rural PK-12 schools, districts, or Unions. Methods: Case study, interviews, focus groups, document analysis. Strong writing and organizational skills.
Sutherland, Daniella: Vermont Rural Education Hub
Faculty Name: Daniella Sutherland, PhD
Research Project Title: Vermont Rural Education Hub
Description: Our multi-method study has three aims: 1) develop robust understanding of the state of public education in Vermont; 2.) build a Vermont educational leadership and policy research hub at UVM and 3.) connect and support rural educational leaders across the state.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest, experience with rural PK-12 schools, districts, or Unions. Methods: Case study, interviews, focus groups, document analysis. Strong writing and organizational skills.
Sutherland, Daniella: Educational Equity and Rural School-Community Partnerships
Faculty Name: Daniella Sutherland, PhD
Research Project Title: Educational Equity and Rural School-Community Partnerships
Description: In this qualitative, improvement-science study, we will investigate how to develop, facilitate, and support rural school-community partnerships that improve educational equity.
Hours Per Week: 10
Student Skills Required Please note, methodological interest; training will occur in the doctoral program: Interest; experience with community partnerships, PK-12 systems, and/or social justice work. Methods: Improvement Science cycles, interviews, focus groups, descriptive data analysis. Strong communication and organizational skills.
