News in Brief: EHD Alumna, Researcher Wins Outstanding Dissertation Award
Now a researcher at Youth-Nex, Meredith Franco was awarded the 2024 APA Division 16 Outstanding Dissertation Award for her work as an EHD doctoral student.
Meredith P. Franco, currently a research scientist at Youth-Nex, was recently recognized for her outstanding dissertation while a Ph.D. student at the UVA School of Education and Human Development. A 2023 graduate of the clinical and school psychology program, Franco’s dissertation, “Culturally Responsive Practice in PK-12 Classrooms: Identification and Validation of Discrete Indicators,” was honored by the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 16 this month.
The honor is given to an individual who recently completed a dissertation that merits special recognition and has the potential to contribute to the science and practice of school psychology. An article stemming from Franco’s dissertation work was published in the high-impact journal, Review of Educational Research, and is now freely available.
“We are grateful that the APA and the review committee selected Meredith for this prestigious award,” said Professor Catherine Bradshaw, senior associate dean for research and co-chair of Franco’s dissertation committee. “Her dissertation work is exceptional in many ways. Meredith is skillful in conceptualizing and addressing key challenges in the field by employing rigorous quantitative methodologies with a critical lens.”
In her dissertation, Franco encourages school researchers and practitioners to recognize the positive impact of culturally responsive practice (CRP) on classroom climate and how to understand different measurement approaches for CRP-related interventions. She also encourages them to find ways to create new, innovative measures that can be used across developmental stages and contexts.
Now a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and researcher, Franco’s scholarship continues to explore how teachers’ use of culturally responsive educational practices can promote student equity and, ultimately, inform the design of just classrooms, schools, and systems.
“I am incredibly thankful to the Division 16 Award Committee for this recognition.” Franco said. “The encouragement I received from my EHD mentors—including professors Catherine Bradshaw, Jessika Bottiani, and Jason Downer—to take on ambitious projects and aim for publishing in high-impact journals has laid the groundwork for my path as an early career researcher.”
Franco and other Division 16 award winners were recognized at the annual APA Convention this summer on August 10 in Seattle, WA.