
THE ALABAMA EQUITY DIVIDE (AED) LAB: ENVIRONMENT, INEQUALITY, AND RURAL OUTCOMES
Lab Director: Andrew Pendola, Ph.D.
Want to get started with research? The AED lab has a place for students of all skill levels. We meet twice a month and design projects that all can join, place people in conferences, and write group publications. This is exactly how you get involved in projects, publications, and conferences.
About Us
The AED Research Lab aims to explore ways in which locale and student outcomes intersect across Alabama, using longitudinal statewide representative data from the Stanford Education Data Archive.
A growing body of literature has recognized that the inequitable distribution of school resources has contributed to systematic differences in student outcomes. However, ways in which race, socioeconomic status, and spatial geographies intersect have been largely overlooked, even with growing emphasis on how resource inequalities are substantively different between urban, suburban, and rural locales.
How to join
New lab members are accepted on a rolling basis. To join, send a brief email to Dr. Pendola (pendola@auburn.edu) stating your research interests, background, and what you hope to gain from the group.

Our Research Output
Papers
Pendola, A., Jang, H., Moore, T., Rushing, K. J., Appiah, J., Guilford, N., Billingslea, W., Wilson, N., Dadematthews, A., & McCambridge, C. (In Press). The Alabama Equity Divide: Environmental Poverty and Achievement Across Urban and Rural Locales. Educational Research Quarterly.
Rushing, K.J., Pendola, A. (Under Review). Outlier Leadership in Alabama: Resource Challenged Schools and Principal Practices.
Conference Presentations
Rushing, K. J., & Pendola, A. (2022). Outlier Leadership in Alabama: Mixed-Methods Study of Principal Practices in High-Performing Disadvantaged schools [Paper Session]. American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA
Rushing, K. J., & Pendola, A. (2021). Outlier leadership: How to beat the odds in challenging school contexts [Paper Session]. University Council for Educational Administration, Columbus OH.
Rushing, J., Jang, H., Moore, T., Appiah, J., Guilford, N., Billingslea, W., Dadematthews, A. (2022, April). Manifesting environmental poverty: K-12 achievement in Alabama. [Roundtable]. AERA Annual Meeting. San Diego, CA.
Jang, H., Moore, T., & Pendola, A. (2021). Understanding Student Achievement with Multifaceted Factors of Poverty [Poster Session] Southeastern University Graduate Research Symposium
Moore, T., Jang, H., & Pendola, A. (2021, August). Impact of Environmental Factors & Psychological Effects on K-12 Student Achievement in Alabama. Poster to be presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association (APA), virtual meeting.
CURRENT AED RESEARCH TEAM MEMBERS
JOHN APPIAH
Program: PhD Administration and Supervision of Curriculum
Current Position: Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, Auburn University
Research Interest: Pedagogical leadership in Early Childhood Education, Numeracy in Early Childhood Education, Educational leadership.
Current Projects: QMER SPIIN Paper on Student Learning Communities
TEANNA MOORE
Program: Educational Psychology Ph.D.
Current Position: Transition-based Learning/Agriscience Teacher, Opelika City Schools and Graduate Teaching Assistant and Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology, Auburn University
Research interests: Secondary students' ability to develop positive interpersonal skills, student's perspectives on the value, identification and development of these skills, instruction on interpersonal skills that facilitate generalization to settings inside and outside of school
ADEFUNKE DADEMATTHEWS
Program: Kinesiology Ph.D.
Current Position: Graduate Research Assistant, School of Kinesiology
Research Interests: Health disparities and youth mental health, child and adolescent mental health, disability related research, academic achievement, and health
HYUNSUNG JANG
Program: Educational Psychology Ph.D.
Current position: Graduate Research Assistant, Department of Educational Foundations, Technology, and Leadership, Auburn University
Research interests: How personality impacts learners' perception on feedback, motivation, and teamwork.
How student achievement differs on micro and macro levels
JOY RUSHING
Program: PhD Educational Leadership
Research Interest: School Leadership Learning
Current Projects: Outlier Leadership
GBENGA DADEMATTHEWS
Program: Kinesiology, Ph.D.
Current Position: Warrior Research Center
Current Projects: Spatiality, health, and education
WILLIAM BILLINGSLEA
To be added soon
YAN 'DIANE' DAI
To be added soon
SUNNY LEE
To be added soon
JESSI RIEL
To be added soon