Appendix G
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff
Carl A. Cohn (cochair) is director of the Urban Leadership Program and clinical professor of urban school leadership at Claremont Graduate University. Previously, he served in California as superintendent of schools in San Diego Unified School District and head of the Long Beach Unified School District. He has also served as a clinical professor at the University of Southern California and as the federal court monitor for the special education consent decree in the Los Angeles Unified School District. He serves on the boards of the American College Testing, Inc., the Freedom Writers Foundation, the Center for Reform of School Systems, and EdSource. He is a recipient of the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education from the McGraw-Hill Research Foundation and of the Broad Prize for Urban Education from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. He has a B.A. in philosophy from St. John’s College, an M.A. in counseling from Chapman University, and an Ed.D. in administrative and policy studies from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Lorraine McDonnell (cochair) is a professor of political science at the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB). Prior to joining UCSB, Lorraine McDonnell was a senior political scientist at RAND. Her research focuses on the politics of student testing, the design and implementation of educational reform initiatives, and the institutions of educational governance. In recent studies, she has examined the politics of student testing, particularly the curricular and political values underlying state assessment policies. Her publications have focused on various aspects of education policy and politics, including teacher unions, the education of immigrant
students, and the role of citizen deliberation. She served as president of the American Educational Research Association. She has a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.
Alexandra Beatty (study director) is a senior program officer for the Board on Testing and Assessment at the National Research Council (NRC). Her NRC work has included the first-phase evaluation of the District of Columbia Public Schools; studies of teacher preparation, of National Board certification for teachers, and of state-level science assessment; and studies by the Committee on Education Excellence and Testing Equity. Previously, she worked on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and College Board programs at the Educational Testing Service and as an independent education writer and researcher. She has a B.A. in philosophy from Williams College and an M.A. in history from Bryn Mawr College.
Mark Dynarski is the founder of and a researcher with Pemberton Research, LLC. Previously, he was the vice president and director of the Center for Improving Research Evidence at Mathematica. He also previously served as director of the What Works Clearinghouse at the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education and as director and principal investigator of numerous education programs with a focus on at-risk children and youth. His research interests focus on evidence-based policy, educational policy, school dropout programs, 21st-century after-school programs, and educational technology. His expertise covers econometrics and evaluation methodology, including the design, implementation, and analysis of evaluations of education programs using random assignment and quasi-experimental designs. He is a senior fellow in the Brookings Institution’s Brown Center on Education Policy. He has a B.A. in economics from the State University of New York at Genesco, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University and holds a B.A. in economics from the State University of New York at Geneseo.
David N. Figlio is director and a faculty fellow of the Institute for Policy Research, the Orrington Lunt professor of education and social policy, and a professor of human development and social policy and economics, all at Northwestern University. He is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research covers a wide range of educational and tax issues, from school accountability and standards to welfare policy and policy design. His current research projects involve evaluating the largest school voucher program in the United States, conducting a large-scale study of school accountability, and following children from birth through their school career to study key questions regarding early childhood policy and inequality. He has served on many national education task
forces and panels and has advised several U.S. states and foreign nations on the design, implementation, and evaluation of educational policies. He has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Judith A. Koenig (senior program officer) is on the staff of the Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council (NRC). At the NRC, she has directed measurement-related studies designed to inform education policy. Her work has included studies on the National Assessment for Educational Progress, teacher licensure and advanced-level certification, inclusion of special-needs students and English-language learners in assessment programs, setting standards for the National Assessment of Adult Literacy, assessing 21st-century skills, and using value-added methods for evaluating schools and teachers. Previously, she worked at the Association of American Medical Colleges and as a special education teacher and diagnostician. She has a B.A. in special education from Michigan State University, an M.A. in psychology from George Mason University, and a Ph.D. in educational measurement, statistics, and evaluation from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Sharon J. Lewis recently retired from her role as director of research for the Council of the Great City Schools in Washington, D.C., where she directed the council’s research program, which contributes to the organization’s efforts to improve teaching and learning in the nation’s urban schools, as well as helps develop education policy. Previously, she was assistant superintendent of research, development, and coordination with the Detroit Public Schools, and she has also worked as a national education consultant. She has an M.A. in educational research from Wayne State University.
Susanna Loeb is the Barnett family professor of education at Stanford University, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis, and a codirector of Policy Analysis for California Education. She specializes in education policy, looking at policies and practices that support teachers and school leaders. Her work spans the range of age level, including early education, K-12, and higher education. Her recent work focuses on information barriers to teaching improvement and parenting. Loeb is a member of the National Board for Education Sciences, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and a member of the National Academy of Education. She holds a doctorate in economics and a master of public policy from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor’s in political science and civil engineering from Stanford University.
C. Kent McGuire is president and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation. Previously, he served as dean of the College of Education and
professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Temple University and as senior vice president at Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation. Earlier, he served in the Clinton administration as assistant secretary of education, focusing on research and development. He also previously was an education program officer at the Pew Memorial Trust and at the Eli Lilly Endowment. His current research interests focus on education administration and policy and organizational change. He has participated in a number of evaluation research initiatives on comprehensive school reform, education finance, and school improvement. He has a master’s degree in education administration and policy from Teachers College at Columbia University and a doctorate in public administration from the University of Colorado Denver.
Natalie Nielsen (acting director, Board on Testing and Assessment) has directed numerous studies on K-12 education at the National Research Council (NRC), including those that produced the reports Successful K12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and Monitoring Progress Toward Successful STEM Education: A Nation Advancing? Prior to her work at the NRC, she was the director of research at the Business-Higher Education Forum and a senior researcher at SRI International. She has also served as a staff writer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Project 2061, exhibit researcher at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, and exhibit writer and internal evaluator at the San Diego Natural History Museum. She has a B.S. in geology from the University of California, Davis; an M.S. in geological sciences from San Diego State University; and a Ph.D. in education from George Mason University.
Jenny Nagaoka is the associate director for the Chicago Postsecondary Transition Project at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago, which is a project of the University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research. Previously, she was the project director of the Chicago Public School’s Student Development Planning Initiative, a joint project with the University of Chicago and the Chapin Hall Center for Children. Her current work focuses on the preparation, skills, and support that students need to successfully make the transition from high school to college. She has also worked on the quality of classroom instruction, as well as an evaluation of Chicago Public School’s summer program. She has a B.A. from Macalester College and a master of public policy degree from the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.
Marion Orr is director of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions and the Fred Lippitt professor of public policy,
political science, and urban studies at Brown University. Previously, he was a member of the political science faculty at Duke University. His research interests include American government and politics, urban politics, community organizing, urban public policy, and the politics of urban schools. His book, Black Social Capital: The Politics of School Reform in Baltimore, was awarded the Aaron Wildavsky Award for the best book published annually from the Policy Studies Organization and his book, The Color of School Reform: Race, Politics and the Challenge of Urban Education, was named the best book published annually by the Urban Politics Section of the American Political Science Association. He has an M.A. in political science from Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University) and a Ph.D. in government and politics from the University of Maryland at College Park.
Diana C. Pullin is a professor of educational leadership and higher education and coordinates the Joint Degree Program in Law and Education at the Law School and the Lynch School of Education, both at Boston College. Previously, she served as dean of the School of Education at Boston College and as associate dean of the College of Education at Michigan State University. As a practicing attorney, scholar, and teacher, she has focused on the relationship between law and education in the pursuit of equality of educational opportunity and educational excellence. She has also worked on the development and implementation of ethical and professional standards of practice in education. She has a J.D. and a Ph.D. in education, both from the University of Iowa.
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