About ESRI Best Paper Awards
Students self-nominate their papers for ESRI award consideration. Papers submitted in each category are initially screened by a student panel, with award recipients selected by an awards committee. The final screening committee for each award consists of the award namesake, a faculty representative from the department that created the award, the ESRI faculty adviser, and the student chair of ESRI.

Best Paper Award recipients receive a showcasing of their paper at ESRI, a certificate recording the award, the coaching of the award namesake for the improvement of the paper, $50 towards the registration fee should the paper be accepted for presentation of the paper at a national conference, and posting of the paper on the ESRI website.

The Ralph O. Mueller ESRI Best Paper Award in Research Design was created in June 2006 by the faculty of the Department of Educational Leadership to honor the service of Dr. Mueller as chair from February 2001 through June 2006.

The Jay Shotel ESRI Best Paper Award for Literature Review was created in June 2007 by the faculty of the Department of Teacher Preparation and Special Education to honor the service of Dr. Shotel as chair from 1998 to 2007.

Download ESRI Award Winning Papers

The Sharon A. McDade Student Chair of ESRI was created in March 2008 by the past Student Chairs of ESRI to honor the service of ESRI founder Dr. Sharon A. Mcdade. Dr. McDade served as ESRI Faculty Advisor from 2004 to 2008.