Two faculty members have received one of the College of Education’s highest honors, the university announced yesterday.

Iliana Reyes, an assistant professor in the college’s language, reading and culture department, and Gary Rhoades, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education, have been named Erasmus Circle Fellows.

Their awards consist of $7,500 for travel, scholarly work, professional development or student support.

Reyes’s research centers on bilingualism, particularly as it pertains to children learning two languages.

An affiliate faculty member with the university’s interdisciplinary graduate program in second-language acquisition and teaching, she has presented her work nationally and abroad.

Her work on a longitudinal study that analyzed how low-income Mexican-American families and educators teach young children English was published in the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy.

Rhoades’s work has focused on the sociology of education and education policy and reform.

He is cited in a number of textbooks and encyclopedias, and has attracted six additional faculty members to his department, according to a UA press release.

His studies have analyzed efforts to improve educational access for low-income and minority groups.

The College of Education Advisory Board chooses one senior faculty member and one junior faculty member to receive the Erasmus Circle Fellowships each year. Reyes and Rhoades are the third pair to receive the honor.