The U.S. Department of Education has awarded Johns Hopkins University an exciting five-year grant to establish and lead the National Research Center on Advanced Education, a groundbreaking initiative aimed at expanding and strengthening advanced learning opportunities in American schools.
The center, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), will serve as a national hub for research, innovation, and policy development in advanced education—programs and services to meet the needs of young learners with aptitude and skills beyond their peers.
Johns Hopkins becomes only the second university to receive this competitive designation since the center’s inception in 1990. Previously, the University of Connecticut held the award across multiple cycles.
Led by Jonathan Plucker and also involving Keri Guilbault of the Johns Hopkins School of Education, the center will collaborate with researchers from the American Institutes for Research, Texas A&M University, and the University of Calgary, as well as state education departments in North Carolina, New Jersey, and Nebraska. The team of experts, including Karen Rambo-Hernandez and Matthew Makel, aims to energize and empower teachers, policymakers, and the families of advanced students.
“This center represents a major step forward in how we understand and support advanced learners,” said Plucker. “By partnering with leading states and top researchers, we aim to build a more evidence-based foundation for advanced education nationwide.”
Initial research efforts will focus on evaluating automatic enrollment policies in North Carolina—designed to ensure more access to advanced learning—and developing toolkits for educators in New Jersey and Nebraska to support the identification of students who may benefit from advanced services.
“The particular issues that will serve as our focus are important yet often difficult to study: the effects of automatic enrollment policies, how teachers differentiate instruction for advanced learners, strategies for identifying students who would benefit from advanced education, among other key topics,” said Plucker. “The center team is excited to tackle these challenging projects.”
The grant period began September 30, 2025, and is expected to be renewed annually over five years.
