Educational Leadership and Policy Studies doctoral candidate Sara Doolittle has been awarded the 2019 National Academy of Education Foundation/Spencer Research Development Award. This award is a strong expression of the organizations’ confidence in Doolittle’s potential contribution to the knowledge, understanding and improvement of education.
The award will provide a research stipend of $2,500 to use toward research expenses or professional development. In addition, the award will include travel to Washington, D.C., for the 2019 NAEd/Spencer Fall Fellows Retreat and annual meeting, and the 2020 AERA Annual Meeting, both of which provide opportunities to network and present research to a broad audience. During the retreat, Research Development awardees will participate in mentoring and all other professional development sessions with current NAEd/Spencer Fellows.
Doolittle’s research focuses on the intersection of the law, race and schools, with a particular focus on 19th-century segregation law. Her work on legal challenges to Oklahoma territorial segregation law recently appeared in History of Education Quarterly.
Informed by her 20-year career as a public educator, her research also focuses on 20th- and 21st- century educational finance litigation. Employing both qualitative historical methodology and quantitative legal analysis, her work attends to the broader inequities in educational access.
She has been selected for both the AERA Division F mentorship program and the History of Education Doctoral Summer School sponsored by the leading organizations in history of education. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, Doolittle earned her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Kansas, majoring in English and graduating Phi Beta Kappa with honors. She also holds a master of fine arts degree in English curriculum studies from the University of Colorado.