CALDER hosts annual research conferences on key policy issues that we study. These conferences are designed both to promote more effective policy and to advance effective research.

2007:  Our first conference focused on developing and using state and district administrative databases for research purposes.

IES Director Russ Whitehurst delivered opening comments:
"The availability to the education research community of large administrative datasets containing longitudinal data on individual students linked to characteristics of their teachers, schools, and communities is relatively recent and very important. The wide availability of public heath data has allowed epidemiologists to relate the occurrence of diseases to environmental and personal characteristics that vary by place, time, and subgroup and in so doing spur appreciable advances in the health of the nation. Likewise, longitudinal datasets in education are allowing education researchers to uncover relationships between characteristics of schooling and student outcomes that promise both to enhance the effectiveness of education policies and to inform a new generation of research studies. CALDER is leading the way in this effort. I am very pleased that IES has funded CALDER as well as many of the statewide longitudinal data systems on which the work of CALDER depends. I am honored to be here to welcome you to the first CALDER conference."

Presentations from the conference are available here.

For more details on future conference topics, please see our research timetable.