Research should improve schools for all its constituencies, especially the most marginalized.
Schools serve many constituencies—students, parents, educators, and communities. Educational research should not be done for the sake of it, but instead with a focus on how the research can support better and more equitable outcomes.
Research should bring theory to bear on practical problems.
I do applied research, especially to support school districts in solving problems that they identify. But applied research should not be divorced from theory. Theory provides a roadmap to understand the social processes undergirding a policy problem and provides useful avenues to investigate that problem.
Research should strive to better understand and disrupt how we frame educational problems, measurements, and theory around racial and ethnic categories.
Researchers often treat classifications, like racial and ethnic census categories; or measurements, like student test scores, as objective and naturally-derived. Researchers should help develop theoretical rationales and practical steps for producing research that better reflects students’ and educators’ diverse experiences.
Xu, S., Santelli, F. A., Grissom, J.A., Bartanen, B., Patrick, S. K. (2025) (Dis)Connection at Work: Racial Isolation, Job Experiences, and Teacher Turnover. American Educational Research Journal
Grissom, J. A., Santelli, F. A., Loeb, S. (2025). Fragmentation, Administration, and Isolation? Evidence on Principal Time Use from Large-Scale Observations in Four Urban Districts. Educational Administration Quarterly.
Santelli, F. A., Grissom, J. A. (2025). Does Investment in High-Quality Preservice Principal Training Pay Off? Assessing Outcomes of the Governor’s Academy for School Leadership in Tennessee. Peabody Journal of Education.
Santelli, F. A. & Grissom, J.A. (2024) A Bad Commute: Does Travel Time to Work Predict Teacher and Leader Turnover and Other Workplace Outcomes? AERA Open
Gordon, M., Rubin, M., Blanchard, A., Ellison, A., Grissom, J. A., Santelli, F. A. (2024) Applying to Lead: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Prospective Principals’ Job Application Strategies in Two Urban Districts. Educational Administration Quarterly.
Patrick, S. K. & Santelli, F. A. (2022) Exploring the relationship between demographic isolation and professional experiences of Black and Latinx teachers. Journal of Education Human Resources.
Santelli, F. A., & Grissom, J. A. An Untappable Pipeline? Examining Why Many Educators with Administrative Licenses Do Not Pursue School Leadership. (EdWorkingPaper: 26-1560).
Santelli, F. A., Santos, B., Donohue. K., Papay, J., Schwartz, N., Pagán, O. (2025). Investing in Growth: A Roadmap for Advancing Teacher Professional Learning in Rhode Island. Annenberg Institute at Brown University.