Three professors at the University of Michigan’s Marsal Family School of Education have been chosen as members of the National Academy of Education—one of the highest accolades a researcher in the field of education can attain.

Angela Calabrese Barton, Nell Duke and Kara Finnigan are among 14 education leaders and scholars elected this year, representing a wide range of expertise in education research and policy.

The National Academy of Education advances high quality education research and its use in policy and practice. It consists of U.S. members and international associates who are elected based on outstanding scholarship or leadership related to education. In addition to serving on expert study panels that address pressing issues in education, members are also deeply engaged in the academy’s professional development fellowship programs.

Calabrese Barton’s research focuses on designing and enacting equitable and socially just teaching of science in both schools and community organizations serving youth historically minoritized by dominant society. She studies how these practices support youth in leveraging science as both a context and tool for social transformation, with a particular focus on youth agency and identities. Her research takes a critical and participatory approach, involving youth, teachers and community partners as co-researchers and co-designers across contexts and over time, as they collaboratively seek to disrupt and transform systemic oppressions in science, schooling and society.

Duke’s work focuses on early literacy development, particularly among children living in poverty. Her specific areas of expertise include development of informational reading and writing in young children, comprehension development and instruction in early schooling, and issues of equity in literacy education. Duke is the executive director at The Center for Early Literacy Success at Stand for Children. The center works with schools and early childhood education settings to provide a research-aligned and equitable early literacy education.

Finnigan has conducted research and evaluations of K-12 educational policies and programs at the local, state and federal level for more than 30 years. Her research blends perspectives in education, sociology and political science, and employs both qualitative and quantitative methods. She studies connections between education and housing policies, social movements around integration in metropolitan areas, and the social networks of educational leaders around research evidence. Finnigan also currently serves as senior vice president at the Spencer Foundation.

Several other Marsal faculty members are already National Academy of Education members. They include Deborah Loewenberg Ball, Hyman Bass, Michael Bastedo, Elizabeth Birr Moje, Pamela Moss, Annemarie Sullivan Palincsar, Brian Rowan and Edward Silver.