As a university-affiliated laboratory school, one of Falk’s core missions is to engage in educational research that improves teaching practices worldwide.

Within our school, this research occurs at four tiers, ranging from internal faculty projects to external research shared with Falk for the benefit of the school and its students.

Since 2022, internal projects have been facilitated through the Falk Research Fellows program, led by research coordinator Katrina Bartow Jacobs. Each year, the program provides interested Falk faculty with the opportunity and infrastructure to delve into topics like equitable grading practices and the impact of hands-on exploration on mathematical understanding.

In its first year, the Research Fellows program received four project requests. Since then, it has grown steadily, reaching 12 projects in the 2025–26 school year and becoming progressively more collaborative as teachers pilot joint studies and work together to carry out their research aims. Faculty have also begun sharing their research beyond our school walls at conferences and in journal articles.

External research has also seen consistent growth, expanding from four Pitt-affiliated projects in the 2022–23 school year to nine projects this year, partnering with Elon University, the University of Tennessee, Carnegie Mellon, and several schools and units within the University of Pittsburgh. 

A Closer Look at Falk-Driven Research 

At the Tier 1 level, faculty are engaging in 12 unique projects this year—eight new and four continuing. 

New Projects 

Beth Myers and MaryAnne Borneo are surveying students and teachers to find out their comfort levels, expectations, and feelings about substitute teachers. Based on survey results, they hope to define the unique role that in-house substitutes play in the Falk community and identify opportunities for greater connection and impact. 

Kindergarten teacher Kortney Sherbine is bringing her research background into the classroom to explore how homeroom teachers can support students in documenting their own learning and making sense of their education at a young age. 

Art teacher Deborah Lieberman is piloting a collaborative art program with Falk’s second and eighth grades. At the start of the year, second-grade students created landscapes, which were later recreated by eighth-grade students. Throughout the process, middle schoolers met with their assigned second-grade buddies to discuss artistic vision and connect on a personal level. 

In the Falk music department, Sophie Esswein is exploring how to make music education inclusive for students with learning support plans. Spanning chorus, band, and general music classes, her work aims to establish a meaningful framework that supports and engages students across the department. 

Math teacher Christina Graham is using principles from Thinking Classrooms to encourage mathematical dialogue and risk-taking, foster visual thinking, and support classroom collaboration. Most recently, this work has manifested in collaborative whiteboard problems that get students out of their seats and into a creative problem-solving mindset.

As Falk’s first behavior interventionist, Amanda Venesky is designing observation and teaching templates for fourth-grade faculty and piloting push-in lessons with students. The project seeks to empower classroom teachers (and their students) by building their capacity to recognize and address dysregulated behaviors.

Librarian Emma Kagan is studying the role of school libraries in cultivating family literacy. In the fall, she hosted Falk’s first-ever Family Book Club, which included crafts, a read-aloud, and book-themed activities for students and their adult reading buddies. 

Middle School Division Director Adrienne Floro is introducing Falk to Trust-Based Observation, a professional growth tool defined by brief, frequent classroom observations and collaborative reflection. In piloting this framework, Floro hopes to create space for authentic top-down feedback and to support teachers in developing their practice.

Continuing Projects 

Intermediate teachers Jenny Brent and Kate Petrack continue to explore progressive, social-emotional approaches to Response to Intervention (RTI) models. This school year, they’ve been using 6- to 8-week cycles to implement ideas, collect data, and reflect with students in Brent's third-grade classroom. 

In physical education, Laura Hunt is continuing her Integrated Fitness Curriculum, which teaches elementary students functional fitness skills in creative and child-centered ways. This school year, she’s been offering optional morning sessions, each with a targeted focus like push-ups or agility. 

Danya Lang, Autumn Dillaman, Jackie Metcalf, and Laura Greif are diving into the relationship between classroom groupings and student success with the Bridges math curriculum. While current research indicates that homogeneous readiness groups are less effective at supporting student growth than heterogeneous groupings, Falk faculty expect a more nuanced conclusion under a progressive teaching model. 

K–5 art teacher Cheryl Capezzuti is developing a puppetry curriculum that makes the art form more accessible for students. After designing and play-testing puppet templates, she now plans to dive into art history education to introduce students to diverse puppet makers worldwide.