Research Team

Principal Investigators

Hamilton Lankford
Hamilton LankfordDr. Lankford is an economist in the Department of Educational Administration and Policy Studies. His research focuses on school finance, school choice, residential segregation in schools, and issues concerning student achievement in urban schools, particularly teacher training and how teachers get assigned to particular schools. His research fits well within CSDA’s emphasis on spatial inequality. His future plans include continuing to study the labor markets of teachers and pathways into the teaching profession.
Susanna Loeb
Susanna LoebSusanna Loeb is the Barnett Family Professor of Education at Stanford University, faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis, and a co-director of Policy Analysis for California Education. She specializes in the economics of education and the relationship between schools and federal, state and local policies. Her research addresses teacher policy, looking specifically at how teachers' preferences affect the distribution of teaching quality across schools, how pre-service coursework requirements affect the quality of teacher candidates, and how reforms affect teachers' career decisions. She also studies school leadership and school finance, for example looking at how the structure of state finance systems affects the level and distribution of resources across schools. Susanna is a member of the National Board for Education Sciences, a senior fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, member of the Executive Board of the National Center for the Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research, and a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Luke Miller
Luke MillerLuke C. Miller applies his analytic, leadership and managerial skills to innovative research projects that explore educational phenomena, assess the impacts of policies, reforms and programs on student and teacher outcomes, and evaluate state and federal educational policies. His areas of expertise include economics of education, teacher labor markets, rural education, and education policy. Miller is currently the Principal Investigator on a multi-year research project assessing the effects of state-supported pre-kindergarten on early childhood outcomes through grade 3 as well as the supply of child care. He is also a co-Principal Investigator with the New York research team of the National Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research (CALDER). Miller served as the PI on an NSF-funded research grant that analyzed 12 years of administrative data from North Carolina to examine the impacts of three high school reform models on student course-taking and academic performance. Previously, he analyzed almost 40 years of administrative data on all teachers in New York State to explore the impacts of community amenities on rural teacher labor markets as well as to measure the effects of principals on teacher labor market decisions. Weaving together Miller’s research is a commitment to rigorous analysis of large comprehensive datasets to produce policy-relevant findings that strengthen the quality of the educational opportunities afforded individuals.
James Wyckoff
James WyckoffJim Wyckoff is a Professor at the Curry School of Education, University of Virginia. He directs the Education Policy PhD program and the Center on Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness. He is a PI on grants from NSF and several foundations to explore policies on teacher preparation, recruitment and retention on the quality of the teaching workforce and outcomes for students. Wyckoff currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Children Eligible for School Nutrition Programs, the Scientific Review Panel of the U.S. Department of Education, the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy and on several advisory panels.
Donald J. Boyd
Donald J. BoydDonald J. Boyd is a senior fellow and the former director of State and Local Government Finance research group. Boyd has over two decades of experience analyzing state and local fiscal issues, and has written or co-authored many of the program's reports on the fiscal climate in the 50 states. His previous positions include director of the economic and revenue staff for the New York State Division of the Budget and director of the tax staff for the New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee. Boyd holds a Ph.D. in managerial economics from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York.
Pamela Grossman
Pamela GrossmanPamela Grossman is the Nomellini-Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford University and the Faculty Director of the Center to Support Excellence in Teaching. Her research interests include teacher education and certification; English education, literacy, and literature; and professional development. Her current research focuses on classroom practice in middle-school English and Language Arts, pathways into teaching, and teacher-preparation programs for teachers, clergy, and clinical psychologists. Professor Grossman received a BA in English from Yale University, an MA in Instructional Research and Curriculum Design from the University of California at Berkeley, and both an EdS in Evaluation and a PhD in Curriculum and Teacher Education from Stanford University.

Research Associates

Allison Atteberry
Allison AtteberryAllison Atteberry is an IES postdoctoral fellow the UVA Curry School's Center on Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness. She completed her doctorate at the Stanford School of Education in June 2011, where she was affiliated with the Center for Education Policy Analysis. She received her B.A. from the University of Chicago in Sociology and Political Science. Allison's dissertation focused on issues related to the estimation of causal effects of teachers and schools (value-added), and implications for accountability systems. Other academic interests include research on school intervention strategies to improve learning opportunities for children in disadvantaged settings. She is also interested in the development of professional working communities and networks in schools, and she has studied the uptake of new interventions designed to help teachers develop expertise in their practice. She also has a strong interest in quantitative methods and causal analysis, and completed a graduate minor in statistics at Stanford.
Karen Hammerness
Karen HammernessKaren Hammerness is an Associate Professor and Director of Research at Bard College, and a Research Fellow with the Bard Master of Arts in Teaching Program. Prior to joining the Bard MAT faculty, Karen Hammerness has been involved in a number of research projects in teacher education, exploring the relationship of pedagogy and novice teacher’s learning, and policy and practice. From 1999-2003, she worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Stanford University Teacher Education Program. From 2004-2009, she was a Senior Researcher on the “Does the Pathway Make a Difference?” Project. In addition, with colleagues at Brandeis University, she has been studying teacher education programs that focus upon preparing teachers for particular contexts such as urban public schools, and exploring the advantages of such focused preparation for new teachers, and their students. She recently returned from a year in Oslo, Norway where she was a Fulbright Fellow, studying teacher education in Norway, the Netherlands as well as in Finland. She has a B.A., Middlebury College, an M.Ed. from Harvard University, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University.
Ben Master
Ben MasterBen is a doctoral candidate in the Education Policy program at Stanford University, with additional specialization in the area of Organizational Studies. His research focuses on teacher preparation, teacher evaluation, and school leadership. His dissertation examines alternatives in the design of teacher evaluation systems, particularly with regard to issues of measurement and performance management. Prior to his time at Stanford, Ben was the Director of Data Practices at Achievement First, where he led both professional development and analytical initiatives for the network. He has also worked as a strategy consultant at Capital One Financial Services, and supported K-12 research and policy work at Mass Insight Education. Ben received his undergraduate degree in Economics from Brown University.
Matthew Ronfeldt
Matthew RonfeldtMatt Ronfeldt is an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Michigan. He is interested in studying teacher education in ways that inform policy and practice. His current research focuses on identifying features of clinical training, including student teaching, that improve teacher quality and persistence, particularly in large, urban districts (Chicago, Miami, New York). Because he is interested in the development of teachers across their careers, Ronfeldt also studies teacher labor markets, including the causes and consequences of teacher turnover. He is currently examining the effects of teacher turnover on student achievement, though he has also studied the relationship between teacher quality and within-district transfer. Ronfeldt earned his PhD from Stanford University where he concentrated on teacher education, and also taught middle school mathematics and science for seven years.