Rebecca Callahan

Rebecca Callahan is a professor of educational leadership and policy studies in the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont. Her research focuses on the academic experiences of immigrant-origin, language-minority adolescents as they transition from high school into young adulthood, with an emphasis on the intersection of educational policy with language and immigration policies. She recently completed an NSF-DRK-12 project, Design Technology in Engineering Education for English Learner Students (DTEEL), exploring bilingual elementary students’ problem-solving potential in engineering education. Her research also examines the effects of ESL placement on college preparatory achievement, primary language use and college-going among language-minority students, and school context and academic preparation on the political participation of immigrant young adults. She has published in Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, Educational Policy, Social Science Quarterly, Theory and Research in Social Education, and the American Journal of Education. Callahan earned her MA and PhD in education from the University of California, Davis.

updated 2025