Collaborative Researchers for Educational Sciences Training (CREST) Program of Predoctoral Training
The CREST program mission is to prepare scholars who are fully equipped for interdisciplinary research and evaluation of K-20 policy interventions and associated programs, using sophisticated mixed-methods designs built upon cutting edge quantitative and qualitative methodologies. As an interdisciplinary graduate program, seventeen CREST-affiliated faculty come from six different departments (Educational Psychology, Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Evans School of Public Affairs, Sociology, Economics, and Social Work). The Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP) within the UW College of Education administers the CREST program. Over five years, CREST expects to train 25 doctoral students to meaningfully integrate well-executed quantitative research with rigorous qualitative methods.
CREST scholars are supported to produce policy research informing the K-20 educational enterprise that uses qualitative research methods strategically to motivate, elaborate, validate, and triangulate quantitative results, as well as to explain and explore the meaning and policy import of these results. A unique emphasis of the program is the study and evaluation of policies and programs that affect struggling learners within and across levels of the system (e. g., especially in high school and postsecondary institutions and at the points of transition between them). CREST fellows complete core and elective coursework in K-20 education policy analysis and quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods research methodologies; engage in research apprenticeships and mentoring from the outset; participate in an integrative proseminar throughout their training; receive ongoing advising and progress monitoring from the faculty; produce an education-focused, ideally mixed-methods dissertation; and contribute to national scholarly conversations through conference participation, journal reviewing, and other activities.