Assistant Professor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis Lam Pham Receives AERA Division A Early Career Scholar Award

Lam Pham, an assistant professor of educational evaluation and policy analysis in the NC State College of Education, has received the Early Career Scholar Award from AERA Division A: Administration, Organization, and Leadership. 

The award recognizes a scholar within the first five years of their career who has made outstanding contributions to the fields of educational leadership, administration or organizational theory. 

“It’s a great honor to be recognized by AERA Division A because it helps highlight how my work is situated at the intersection between leadership and policy,” Pham said. “It also means a lot that senior researchers in the field of educational leadership found my contributions to be impactful.”

Pham’s research examines policies aimed at building and retaining effective teachers in chronically low-performing schools. The Early Career Scholar Award highlights his efforts to reach out to educators and educational leadership, including state lawmakers, superintendents and principals across North Carolina. 

Since 2022, Pham has partnered with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in order to recruit, develop and retain teachers in an effort to improve the district’s 10 lowest performing schools. More recently, Pham partnered with Rockingham County Schools for a project that will examine the impact of a program that provides principals with extra funding that can be used to recognize teachers who take on extra duties at their schools.
Over the past year, Pham has been recognized with several other awards for his work, including the Association for Educational Finance and Policy (AEFP) Early Career Award, an Early Career Scholar Award from AERA School Effectiveness and School Improvement (SESI) Special Interest Group and NC State University’s Outstanding Teacher Award.