ATLAS Research Fellowship
2025 Call for Proposals
Doctoral students from accredited US and Canada-based institutions should apply for this unique opportunity! Awarded applicants will conduct research and evaluation projects in support of technology-based learning and assessment systems.
2025 Dates & Deadlines
ATLAS provides feedback on proposed methods.
Requirements
Applicants should meet the following requirements before applying to the ATLAS Research Fellowship program.
- Current enrollment at an accredited institution based in the US or Canada
- Enrollment in a doctoral-level program in one of the following fields
- educational research
- measurement
- statistics
- computer science
- evaluation
- other related field
- Willing faculty adviser from your institution
Complete the online application by May 16. The online application requires the following elements.
- Applicant information
- Faculty adviser information
- Letter from the faculty adviser with the following points
- Familiarity with the proposal and fellowship requirements
- Willingness to supervise the work
- Applicant's preferred funding period
- Brief cover letter with the following points
- Interest in the fellowship
- Graduate-level courses you have completed relevant to your proposal
- Any professional or academic experiences relevant to your proposal
- Resources available that will allow completion of your proposed research (e.g., computing cluster)
- Anticipated timeline
- Any additional information to be considered for your submission
- 2,000-word full proposal
The 2,000-word proposal should include the following information.
- Literature review highlighting the gap your proposal seeks to fill
- Proposed research questions (if relevant)
- Methodology (or methods for systematic literature review if applicable)
- Conclusion section that explains the significance of the work
- Including the potential application for operational assessment programs
Submit the full proposal through the online application by May 16.
Applicants should meet the following requirements before applying to the ATLAS Research Fellowship program.
- Current enrollment at an accredited institution based in the US or Canada
- Enrollment in a doctoral-level program in one of the following fields
- educational research
- measurement
- statistics
- computer science
- evaluation
- other related field
- Willing faculty adviser from your institution
Complete the online application by May 16. The online application requires the following elements.
- Applicant information
- Faculty adviser information
- Letter from the faculty adviser with the following points
- Familiarity with the proposal and fellowship requirements
- Willingness to supervise the work
- Applicant's preferred funding period
- Brief cover letter with the following points
- Interest in the fellowship
- Graduate-level courses you have completed relevant to your proposal
- Any professional or academic experiences relevant to your proposal
- Resources available that will allow completion of your proposed research (e.g., computing cluster)
- Anticipated timeline
- Any additional information to be considered for your submission
- 2,000-word full proposal
The 2,000-word proposal should include the following information.
- Literature review highlighting the gap your proposal seeks to fill
- Proposed research questions (if relevant)
- Methodology (or methods for systematic literature review if applicable)
- Conclusion section that explains the significance of the work
- Including the potential application for operational assessment programs
Submit the full proposal through the online application by May 16.
Innovate with us
ATLAS is a leader in education research and innovation with a wide range of research projects and operational alternate assessments. We drive progress through partnerships and collaborations with organizations that share our focus and commitment.
Research Priorities
ATLAS promotes learning and improved outcomes by creating accessible and academically rigorous technology-based learning and assessment systems for all students with a special focus on students with disabilities, struggling learners, and their teachers through several projects focused on improving student outcomes.
Our learning map models, assessment design, and teacher resources are informed by the center’s research projects and by innovations in psychometrics that support the measurement of map-based learning. We foster partnerships with diverse organizations that share our focus and commitment.
AI applications that can be used within an operational educational assessment program (examples include but are not limited to the following)
- Producing automated, real-time personalized feedback to students, parents, and/or teachers about assessment performance
- Supporting student choice opportunities during assessment
- Advancing adaptive testing engines (using DCM or IRT)
- AI-assisted item drafting
- Improving technical properties of DCMs (e.g., classification accuracy, classification consistency, certainty of mastery classifications)
- Using existing DLM response data and content of DLM Essential Elements, linkage levels to identify interconnected skills that could support recommendations for next areas to target instruction or validating map structures
AI applications to advance research methods
- Summarizing open-ended survey responses
- Conducting literature reviews or market research
- Data cleaning
Evaluating the properties of longitudinal diagnostic classification models and their application to operational assessment programs (examples could include, but are not limited to the following)
- Evaluation of the impact of model misfit on estimates of within-year growth for diagnostic models (e.g., using a transition diagnostic classification model).
- Evaluating the impact of violating the assumption of item invariance for transition diagnostic classification models
Other proposal ideas relevant to our mission and projects will be considered.
Funding Periods & Deliverables
Applicants indicate their preferred funding period in the online application. The scope of the proposed work should be commensurate with the funding period and should be broad enough to allow for approximately 15 hours of work per week for the semester.
The amount of funding is determined by the funding period requested and awarded. Applicants should demonstrate that they have the resources necessary to complete the study in their submission materials (e.g., access to computing cluster).
During the fellowship appointment, the recipient will submit written briefs at the end of each month to update ATLAS staff on progress toward the research goals.
One Semester
Recipients will submit a final research report at the conclusion of the appointment.
Funding amount: $8,000
- Funding period begins (08/01/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (08/30/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (09/30/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (10/31/2025)
- Final research report and related materials (12/2/2025)
Funding amount: $8,000
- Funding period begins (01/02/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (01/31/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (02/28/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (03/31/2026)
- Final research report and related materials (04/30/2026)
Funding amount: $4,000
- Funding period begins (05/19/2026)
Monthly progress brief (06/30/2026) - Monthly progress brief (07/31/2026)
- Final research report and related materials (08/29/2026)
Two Semesters
Recipients will submit one progress report at the end of the first semester and one final research report at the conclusion of the appointment. Continuation of the fellowship in the second semester is contingent on successful progress during the first semester.
Funding amount: $16,000
- Funding period begins (08/01/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (08/30/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (09/30/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (10/31/2025)
- Research progress report (12/02/2025)
- Monthly progress brief (01/31/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (02/28/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (03/31/2026)
- Final research report and related materials (04/30/2026)
Funding amount: $12,000
- Funding period begins (01/02/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (01/31/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (02/28/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (03/31/2026)
- Research progress report (04/30/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (05/30/2026)
- Monthly progress brief (06/30/2026)
- Final research report and related materials (07/31/2026)
Additional Information
- ATLAS requires the delivery of related materials created during the project, such as data analysis scripts, coding protocols, annotated bibliographies, etc. at the conclusion of the appointment.
- Half of the funding amount is provided at the beginning of the funding period, contingent on receipt of the finalized proposal.
- The remaining funding is provided at the end of the fellowship when the final report is submitted.
- The faculty sponsor will receive $1,000 per full semester.
- In the fellowship application, applicants should indicate their interest in presenting their final project at a virtual meeting.
- The presentation is optional and will not influence funding decisions.
- If the project created during the fellowship is anticipated to result in a conference presentation or publication, ATLAS staff must approve the content prior to proposal submission.