Proposal Requirements

 

We appreciate your interest in submitting a proposal for AEFP2025! We welcome proposals that consider new perspectives, theories, and methodologies about how education policies are implemented across diverse educational contexts.

In celebration of our 50th year, the conference will feature “50 Flash Talks,” 5-minute presentations highlighting evidence in key areas of education policy, in addition to our traditional conference sessions, policy dialogues, and poster session. 

In the online proposal submission system, you will be able to choose from one of the conference section topics (listed below) for a paper or poster. We also invite Policy Dialogues that bring together policy makers, practitioners, researchers, and other policy stakeholders. The proposal system will ask you to include keywords with your submission to inform decisions about how to best group papers for sessions.

Paper and Poster Proposals
We welcome paper and poster proposals on any topic in education finance or education policy in any context. We will review proposals under 13 topic areas. Many proposals can reasonably fit into more than one topic area; authors should choose the topic area that fits the proposal best.

  1. Early childhood
  2. Educator preparation, professional development, performance, and evaluation
  3. Educator labor markets (e.g., compensation, pensions, mobility, supply and demand)
  4. K-12 student outcomes (e.g., engagement, absenteeism, assessment, curriculum)
  5. K-12 school finance
  6. K-12 school choice
  7. K-12 school politics, governance, leadership, and organizations
  8. K-12 interventions (academic and non-academic)
  9. Post-secondary student outcomes (e.g., credit accumulation, persistence, performance, and competition)
  10. Post-secondary student access (e.g., admissions, college choice) and financial aid
  11. Post-secondary institutions and systems: Finance, governance, and accountability
  12. Intersections of education and society (e.g., health, employment, civic life)
  13. Data systems and methodological perspectives

Only paper or poster submissions will be accepted; panel submissions will not be accepted. Submissions must not exceed 1,000 words. Proposals should clearly articulate the following elements:

  • Background/Significance
  • Research Questions
  • Data Sources
  • Methods
  • Findings

A strong proposal should:

  • provide context for the study and describe its contribution;
  • include clearly stated research questions;
  • describe data sources and methods in sufficient detail; and,
  • explain its results and substantiate conclusions.

If findings are preliminary at the point of proposal submission, please note that more complete findings are expected two weeks prior to the conference presentation. In addition, please adhere to the following:

  • Supplemental tables and figures may be uploaded, but do not upload a working paper in place of a proposal.
  • Submit only one paper as the presenter; i.e. you may present only once, but you may be an author on other proposals.
  • You may also submit and present a paper/poster AND be included in a Policy Dialogue or Flash Talk.

Policy Dialogues
In addition to individual papers, we encourage proposals for policy dialogues. These sessions are intended to bring together policy makers, practitioners, researchers and other policy influencers to discuss a topic of broad relevance to policy or practice. We encourage sessions that present a debate in education policymaking and feature discussion of multiple points of view.

In consideration of the conference theme, Fifty Years of Education Finance and Policy: Taking Stock and Looking Ahead, we  also invite Policy Dialogues that take on a broader perspective on what we’ve learned in key areas, and where policymaking might be headed. Policy Dialogues can include up to five people (four panelists and one moderator) and must include at least one, and ideally more than one, policymaker, practitioner, or policy influencer.

Policy Dialogue proposals should not exceed 1,000 words in length and should include the following:

  • Background/Significance
  • Policy or Practice Topic Addressed
  • Description of Dialogue Format and Audience Participation
  • Panelists and Expected Contributions

A strong proposal should:

  • explain the session’s relevance to policy or practice;
  • provide a clear statement of the policy or practice topic it addresses;
  • describe the session format, including a breakdown of time for panel comments vs. audience discussion and description of how the panel will engage attendees in dialogue (e.g., live polls, QR codes linking to a document to gather attendee ideas and share resources, or questions posed to the audience to seek input on how policy and practice might be informed by evidence);
  • provide relevant information about panelists on the perspectives they bring to the policy discussion.


Flash Talks
In honor of our 50th anniversary, the conference will feature 50 Flash Talks. Flash talks are 5-minute presentations intended to summarize the evidence on a topic and stimulate conversation about remaining puzzles and unanswered questions. These flash talks will be organized in sessions that feature both works being compiled for the AEFP Live Handbook and submissions from the field. Authors may choose to include slides (no more than 3) in their presentations. We encourage submissions from early career researchers who seek opportunities to present work they’ve done to summarize the evidence in different areas of education policy.

Flash talk proposals are to be submitted as abstracts of up to 300 words in length and should include the following:

  • Policy topic to be addressed
  • Significance of the topic
  • Summary of the evidence
  • Unanswered questions, new frontiers for research, policy, or practice