College of Education Accolades & Activities

Discover the latest accomplishments, events and highlights from the College of Education.

Friday, Oct 23, 2026 • Olivia Morrow-Payne : olivia.morrowpayne@uta.edu

Faculty Recognition and Media Features

  • The UTA College of Education congratulates Dr. James Hardy on receiving emeritus status in recognition of his contributions to the university and the academic community.
  • Dr. Joel Leader was featured in a Fort Worth Report article examining the role of Texas public schools in Gina Hinojosa’s gubernatorial campaign and the potential influence of education policy on voters.
  • Dr. Lauren Weisberg received the Best Paper Award at the 2026 Conference on Research on Equity and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT). The award-winning paper, Designing for All: Leveraging Micro-Credentials to Increase Participation for Learners with Disabilities in K-12 CS Education, explores strategies for expanding access and participation in K–12 computer science education for learners with disabilities. Co-authored by Alexis Cobo, Lauren Weisberg, Dwi Maharrani and Maya Israel, the paper appears on pages 85–89 of the RESPECT 2026 Proceedings.
  • A book co-authored by Dr. Daniel Robinson and Howard Wainer, Testing and the Paradoxes of Fairness (2025), received the Mensa Education and Research Foundation Award for Excellence in Research. Published by Cambridge University Press, the book examines questions surrounding testing, fairness and the interpretation of assessment results.
  • Dr. Daniel Robinson has also published new research in Frontiers in Psychology, contributing to ongoing scholarly conversations in psychology and related fields.
  • Dr. Daniel H. Robinson explores the claims surrounding Mississippi’s education gains in The Mississippi Miracle: Smoke and Mirrors vs. Reality, published by Skeptic. The article examines the evidence behind the state’s widely discussed education improvements and encourages readers to look critically at the factors contributing to student outcomes.

 

Research, Grants and Scholarly Publications

  • Dr. Jiyoon Yoon received external funding to host a Changshin University program at UT Arlington. The program brings 20 students and one faculty member from the South Korean university to campus, supporting international academic engagement and cross-cultural learning.
  • Dr. Jin Liu is a co-principal investigator on the 2026–2027 project Reliable and Valid Social Data Science: A Trustworthy Framework for Robust Measurement and Analysis, funded through UT Arlington’s Interdisciplinary Research Program with a $20,000 award. The project brings together expertise in mathematics, educational measurement, economics and computer science to develop effective prompting strategies for robust and trustworthy measurement and analysis. The research team includes principal investigator Jiang Wei, assistant professor of mathematics; co-principal investigator Jin Liu; Yutong Chen of economics; and Jiandong Wang of computer science.
  • Dr. Jin Liu has two forthcoming scholarly publications advancing research in educational measurement and statistical methodology.

- Psychometric validation: Kellam, H., Liu, J., and Gilmore, T. (in press). “A Comprehensive Psychometric Validation of Student Online Readiness: Factorial Validity, Reliability, Invariance Testing, and MIMIC Modeling of the ORSSA.” Electronic Journal of e-Learning. This study examines the validity and reliability of a measure of student online readiness.

- Statistical methodology: Liu, L., Liu, J., Yi, H., and Okech, D. (in press). “Simulation-cum-ROC Fit Evaluation in Sparse Ordinal CFA Under Category Collapsing.” Structural Equation Modeling. This study focuses on methodological approaches to evaluating model fit in ordinal confirmatory factor analysis.
These publications reflect ongoing efforts to strengthen measurement practices and advance methodological research.

Student Research and Recognition

  • Four current UTA College of Education Mind, Brain, and Education (MBE) students are featured in The Conversation in an article examining state takeovers of struggling Texas school districts and their effects on schools and communities. With Dr. Daniel H. Robinson, their feature highlights the value of research-informed perspectives in understanding education policy, school leadership and the consequences of state intervention in public education.

Program Updates

New Teacher Residency program has been featured in many different news outlets:

  

 

Return Home