Dana L. Mitra

University Park, PA
Professor of Education, Department of Education Policy Studies, Education Theory and Policy Program
The Pennsylvania State University

Dana L. Mitra is Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Education Policy Studies at the Pennsylvania State University. Dana has published over 30 papers and two books on the topics of student voice and civic engagement. She is the founding editor of the International Journal of Student Voice and the co-editor of the American Journal of Education. Dana’s prior work experience includes teaching elementary school in the Washington, DC area and serving as the coordinator for two White House Conferences on Character Education.

Dana has served as a Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in 2012 to study child participation and educational reform in Bangalore, India. She has recently published a book entitled, Civic Education in the Elementary Grades: Promoting Engagement in an Era of Accountability (Teacher’s College Press).

About the Students at the Center Distinguished Fellowship

The inaugural cohort of the Students at the Center Distinguished Fellows was a diverse group of nine leaders in policy, practice, and research from around New England, each selected for their vision, contributions, and impact in the student-centered learning movement in the region. The Fellows’ overarching goals were:

to investigate, use, and promote effective renditions of student-centered learning (i.e., personalized, competency-based, student-owned, and anytime-anywhere) in the New England region and beyond; and

to communicate research findings in ways that make them actionable and accessible for policymakers and practitioners to maximize students’ academic achievement, particularly for those students who have been historically underserved.

Along with four research teams announced in November 2016 and a group of prominent national advisors, the Students at the Center Distinguished Fellows comprised core members of the newly formed Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative. With thought leadership and anchor funding from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative is a bold new effort to investigate and evaluate what we know about student-centered learning within and beyond school walls, and then leverage that knowledge to affect meaningful change at scale.

Learn more about the Student-Centered Learning Research Collaborative.
The first cohort of Students at the Center Distinguished Fellows is generously funded by The Nellie Mae Education Foundation.