William Trent, professor of EPOL, has been selected to give the 2012 Wallace Foundation Lecture by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). The lecture will be given on the first day of the AERA Annual Meeting, which will be held April 13-17 in Vancouver, British Columbia. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Non Satis Scire: to Know is not Enough.”

The lecture, which focuses on the improvement of educational practice in American primary and secondary schools, is by invitation of the AERA’s Program Committee. Lecturers are asked to give special emphasis to topics that relate to the improvement of educational services for children from low-income communities.

“I am honored and humbled by this extraordinary opportunity presented by the AERA,” Trent said. “I will do my best to deliver a lecture that embraces all that the Wallace Foundation Lecture is intended to embody. It is humbling to read the list of prior speakers and think that my name will be listed with them,” Trent added. “They are colleagues and dear friends whose intellect and scholarship have frequently been a source of guidance for me.”

Trent joined the College of Education’s Department of Educational Policy Studies in 1983 as an assistant professor. In 1992, he was promoted to professor. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1982. He is also an affiliate in the Sociology and African American Studies departments. In addition, Trent served as an associate chancellor during the chancellorship of Michael Aiken.

Throughout his career, his research has centered on examining educational inequality at the elementary, secondary and post-secondary levels. His research on issues of school desegregation and college access have involved him in several K-12 and postsecondary legal cases seeking to secure access to quality educational resources and experiences for underserved students. He is currently PI for the National Science Foundation-funded project STEP-UP (STEM Trends in Enrollment and Persistence for Underrepresented Populations).

Previous Wallace lecturers include: Alfredo Artiles, 2011; Margaret Beale Spencer, 2010; Lauren B. Resnick, 2009; Carol D. Lee, 2008; Deborah Lowenberg Ball, 2007; Linda Darling-Hammond, 2006; Walter R. Allen, 2005; Gloria Ladson-Billings, 2004; Lisa Delpit, 2003; Robert Slavin, 2002; and Shirley Brice Heath, 2001.