Appendix E
Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff
Christopher Edley, Jr. (Chair) is the honorable William H. Orrick, Jr., distinguished professor and faculty director at the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Law and Social Policy at the University of California Berkeley School of Law. Previously, he was dean of the Berkeley School of Law and a professor at Harvard Law School. His academic work is broadly in administrative law, civil rights, education policy, and domestic public policy. In addition to his academic work, he served in White House policy and budget positions in the Carter and Clinton administrations. He also held senior positions in five presidential campaigns, including as senior policy adviser for Barack Obama and on Obama’s Transition Board. More recently, he cochaired the congressionally chartered National Commission on Education Equity and Excellence, and he chairs the follow-on effort, For Each & Every Child. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Public Administration, the Council of Foreign Relations, and the Gates Foundation’s National Programs Advisory Panel He has a B.A. in mathematics from Swarthmore College, an M.A. from Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a J.D. from Harvard Law School.
Elaine Allensworth is the Lewis-Sebring director of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, where she conducts studies on what matters for student success and school improvement. Her research on early indicators of high school graduation has been used to create student monitoring systems for Chicago and other districts across the country. In addition to studying educational attainment, she conducts research in the areas of
school leadership and school organization. She has received a number of awards from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) for outstanding publications, including the Palmer O. Johnson award for an outstanding article in an AERA journal, Division H awards for outstanding instructional research and planning research, and a policy and management research award She has an M.A. in sociology and urban studies and a Ph.D. in sociology, both from Michigan State University.
Alberto Carvalho is superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, the nation’s fourth largest school system, with more than 350 schools serving 400,000 students. Previously, he served the school system in several capacities, including as chief communications officer, administrative director, and as both associate and assistant superintendent. Under his leadership, the district has won the College Board Advanced Placement Equity and Excellence District of the Year award, the Cambridge District of the Year award, and the Broad Prize for Urban Education. He is the recipient of the Florida Superintendent of the Year award, the Urban Superintendent of the Year award, the National Superintendent of the Year award of the American Association of School Administrators, and the Superintendent of the Year award of the National Association of Bilingual Education. He is also winner of the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education and has received honors from both Mexico and Portugal. He currently serves on the National Assessment Governing Board. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biology/biomedical sciences from Barry University and a master’s degree in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Constance F. Citro is a senior scholar in the Committee on National Statistics (CNSTAT). She previously served as CNSTAT director and senior study director. She began her career with CNSTAT in 1984 as study director for the panel that produced The Bicentennial Census: New Directions for Methodology in 1990. Prior to joining CNSTAT, she held positions as vice president of Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., and Data Use and Access Laboratories, Inc. She was an American Statistical Association/National Science Foundation/Census research fellow in 1985-1986, and is a fellow of the American Statistical Association and an elected member of the International Statistical Institute. For CNSTAT, she directed evaluations of the 2000 census, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, micro-simulation models for social welfare programs, and the National Science Foundation science and engineering personnel data system, in addition to studies on institutional review boards and social science research, estimates of poverty for small geographic areas, data and methods for retirement income modeling, and a new approach for measuring poverty. She co-edited the 2nd–6th editions of Principles and Practices for a Federal Statistical
Agency. She received her B.A. in political science from the University of Rochester, and M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Yale University.
Stella Flores is an associate professor of higher education at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. In her research she uses large-scale databases and quantitative methods to investigate the effects of state and federal policies on college access and completion rates for low-income and underrepresented populations. That research covers minority-serving institutions, immigrant students, English-language learners, the role of alternative admissions plans and financial aid programs in college admissions in the United States and abroad, demographic changes in U.S. education, and Latino students and community colleges. Previously, she served as an associate professor at Vanderbilt University and held positions at the U.S. Government Accountability Office and the U.S. Economic Development Administration. She has a B.A. from Rice University, a master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Texas at Austin, and an Ed.M. and an Ed.D. in administration, planning, and social policy from Harvard University.
Nancy Gonzales is associate dean of faculty at Arizona State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her primary research interests focus on cultural and contextual influences on adolescent mental health, and her areas of research include culture and ethnic issues in prevention research; prevention of Mexican-American school dropout and mental health problems; acculturation and enculturation of Mexican-American children and families; and contextual influences on adolescent development. Her work includes research on the role of neighborhood disadvantage and acculturation on children’s mental health and on how these influences are mediated or moderated by family processes in Mexican-American and African-American families. She also is involved in the development and evaluation of culturally sensitive interventions for Mexican-American and African-American families. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Washington.
Laura Hamilton is a senior behavioral scientist and distinguished chair in learning and assessment at the RAND Corporation, where she directs the RAND Center for Social and Emotional Learning Research and codirects the American Educator Panels. She also serves as a faculty member at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. Previously, she served as an adjunct faculty member in the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Sciences and Policy program. Her research addresses topics related to social and emotional learning, educational assessment, accountability, the implementation of curriculum and instructional reforms, and education technology. Recent projects include a study of a social and emotional learning intervention for
elementary schools and afterschool programs, the development of a database of measures of interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies, and an evaluation of personalized learning interventions. She has also served on several state and national panels on topics related to assessment, accountability, and educator evaluation. She has an M.S. in statistics and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Stanford University.
James Kemple is the executive director of the Research Alliance for New York City Schools and research professor at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. For the Research Alliance, he serves as the principal investigator on a range of studies, including those examining the efficacy of on-track indicators for different grade levels; performance trends in New York City (NYC) high schools; and the effects of school closure. His work focuses on examining high school reform efforts, assessing performance trends in the city’s educational landscape, and designing rigorous impact evaluations. He collaborates with the NYC Department of Education, private foundations, and other stakeholders to identify research priorities and develop new lines of inquiry. Earlier in his career, he was a high school mathematics teacher, and he also managed the Higher Achievement Program, which serves disadvantaged youth in Washington, D.C. He has a B.A. in mathematics from the College of the Holy Cross and an Ed.M. and an Ed.D. from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education.
Judith Koenig (Study Director) is on the staff of the Committee on National Statistics of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, where she directs measurement-related studies designed to inform education policy. Her work has included studies on the National Assessment of 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 elementary and 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.
Sharon Lewis recently retired from the position of director of research for the Council of the Great City Schools in Washington, D.C. In that position she had directed the council’s research program, which contributes to the organization’s efforts to improve teaching and learning in the nation’s urban
schools and to help develop education policy. She previously worked as a national education consultant and as assistant superintendent of research, development, and coordination with the Detroit Public Schools. She has an M.A. in educational research from Wayne State University.
Michael J. MacKenzie is the Canada research chair on child well-being and professor of social work, psychiatry, and pediatrics at McGill University. His research focuses on the accumulation of stress and adversity in early childhood and the impact on caregiver perceptions and subsequent parenting behavior, including the roots of maltreatment and the pathways of children into and through the child welfare system. He served as the principal investigator on a UNICEF-funded project in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that represented one of the first implementations of foster care and juvenile diversion as community-based alternatives to institutionalization in the region. His honors include a William T. Grant Foundation faculty scholar award to support a project examining the biological and social underpinnings of the placement trajectories and well-being of children in the foster care system and an excellence in research award from the Society for Social Work and Research. He has a B.Sc. and M.Sc. from the University of Western Ontario and an M.S.W., M.A., and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
C. Kent McGuire is program director for education at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Previously, his positions included president and CEO of the Southern Education Foundation, dean of the College of Education and professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Temple University, senior vice president at Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, and education program officer at the Pew Memorial Trust and at the Eli Lilly Endowment. He also served in the Clinton administration as assistant secretary of education, focusing on research and development. His current research interests focus on education administration and policy and organizational change. He has also been involved 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 Ph.D. in public administration from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Sara McLanahan is the William S. Tod professor of sociology and public affairs at Princeton University. She is the founding director of the Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing and the interim director of the center’s Education Research Section. She is a principal investigator of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and editor-in--
chief of The Future of Children, a journal dedicated to providing research and analysis to promote effective policies and programs for children. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Russell Sage Foundation, and she is a past president of the Population Association of America and a past member of the boards of the American Sociological Association and the Population Association of America. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Political Science, and the American Philosophical Society. She has a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin, and she is the recipient of an honorary degree from Northwestern University.
Natalie Nielsen is an independent research and evaluation consultant whose work focuses on improving opportunities and outcomes for young people. Before becoming an independent consultant, she spent 5 years at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, first as a senior program officer for the Board on Science Education and later as the acting director of the Board on Testing and Assessment. She also served as the director of research at the Business-Higher Education Forum and as a senior researcher at SRI International. Nielsen holds a Ph.D. in education from George Mason University, an M.S. in geological sciences from San Diego State University, and a B.S. in geology from the University of California, Davis.
Meredith Phillips is associate professor of public policy and sociology at the Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California at Los Angeles. Her work focuses on the causes and consequences of educational inequality, particularly on the causes of ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in educational success and how to reduce those disparities. Her current research projects include a random-assignment evaluation of the efficacy of two low-cost college access interventions and an ethnographic longitudinal study of adolescent culture, families, schools, and academic achievement. With colleagues, she recently developed school and classroom environment surveys for the Los Angeles Unified School District. She cofounded EdBoost, a charitable, educational nonprofit whose mission is to reduce educational inequality by making high-quality supplemental educational services accessible to children from all family backgrounds. Phillips also cofounded and serves as research advisor to the Los Angeles Education Research Institute. She has an A.B. from Brown University and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
Morgan Polikoff is an associate professor of education at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. His areas of research include K–12 education policy; Common Core standards; assess-
ment policy; alignment among instruction, standards, and assessments; and the measurement of classroom instruction. He uses quantitative methods to study the design, implementation, and effects of standards, assessment, and accountability policies. Recent work has investigated teachers’ instructional responses to content standards and critiqued the design of school and teacher accountability systems. His ongoing work focuses on the implementation of Common Core standards and the influence of curriculum materials and assessments on implementation. He has a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and secondary education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. with a focus on education policy from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.
Sean F. Reardon is professor of poverty and inequality in education and a professor of sociology at Stanford University. His research focuses on the causes, patterns, trends, and consequences of social and educational inequality, the effects of educational policy on educational and social inequality, and applied statistical methods for educational research. He also develops methods of measuring social and educational inequality, including the measurement of segregation and achievement gaps, as well as methods of causal inference in educational and social science research. He teaches graduate courses in applied statistical methods, with a particular emphasis on the application of experimental and quasi-experimental methods to the investigation of issues of educational policy and practice. He is a member of the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been a recipient of a William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award and a Carnegie Scholar Award. He has a Ph.D. in education from Harvard University.
Karolyn Tyson is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She specializes in qualitative research focused on issues related to schooling and inequality. She is particularly interested in understanding the complex interactions between schooling processes and the achievement outcomes of black students. Some of her current and recent work includes a multi-method, multi-site study examining issues centered on the law, rights consciousness, and legal mobilization in American secondary schools; an examination of how and why black students have come to equate school success with whiteness; and a study tracing the history of racialized tracking in a suburban school district and its consequences for the district’s black students. She has a B.A. from Spelman College and a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley.
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