Bilena Dabalen ‘25 and Morgan Isabell ‘26 both spent this summer researching the history of for-profit companies affecting public education as UTRA Research Assistants for Professor Tracy Steffes, Chair of the Department of Education.

Professor Katie Rieser and UTRA students Meg Henning ‘25 and Eliana Lopez ‘25 worked together this summer to research and create a teacher induction program to support MAT alumni.

Ryan McCray MAT’25, who attended Brown Summer High School as a high school student, returned to teach Social Studies this summer as her first step in earning her Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) degree from Brown.

In her new book, Professor Jin Li explores the philosophical origins of the concept of self in both Eastern and Western cultures and synthesizes her findings with cutting-edge psychological research to reveal a fundamental contrast.

Professor Laura Snyder, Senior Lecturer in Education, takes on undergraduate research assistants each fall and summer through the Undergraduate Teaching and Research Awards (UTRA) program. This summer, Harris Galvin ‘26 and Happy Ruth Jara ‘25, MAT’26 assisted Professor Snyder’s work of creating accessible and diverse high school English curricula.

This summer, MAT alums Cuauhtemoc Arizpe and Elliana Reynolds served as the principals for Brown Summer High School, guiding the high school enrichment program and a new cohort of MAT students.

Professor Matthew Kraft will serve a one-year term on the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). The CEA advises the President on economic policy based on data, research, and evidence.

Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) contain detailed information about students’ experiences receiving special education services in schools. Using rigorous quantitative methods, Christopher Cleveland and co-author Jessica Markham (Boston University) are using digital IEPs from Indiana to identify statewide patterns in evaluations, goals, services, and placements.

Christopher Cleveland is an Assistant Professor of Education and Education Policy, holding a joint appointment in the Education Department and Annenberg Institute. His research and teaching focus on quantitative policy analysis in school finance, gifted and special education, and human capital.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Education, Jacques P. Lesure, shares about his recently-defended dissertation research on nonprofit leadership programs for “high-achieving” Black men, plans for future research projects, and courses he will teach at Brown.

The Brown Department of Education is happy to announce that faculty members Tracy L. Steffes and Diane Silva Pimentel have received promotions. Effective July 1, 2024, Professor Steffes has been promoted to Professor of Education and History and Professor Silva Pimentel has been promoted to Distinguished Senior Lecturer.

For her Urban Education Policy master's capstone project, Ramona Santos Torres AM'24 created a decision-making matrix for community-based organizations to assess the impacts of becoming the plaintiff in class-action lawsuits.

Namibia is a linguistically diverse country that attained independence in 1990. One of the most significant policy decisions at the time was to remove Afrikaans as one of the official languages, recognizing English only. In this paper, Kristof Iipinge (University of Namibia) and Pierre de Galbert (Brown University) critically review the criteria used to justify this decision and argue that the choice of these criteria, and the “value” attributed to European languages, compared with that of Namibian languages, were biased in a way to support the monolingual English policy.

Kelvin Roldán, Ed.L.D. is currently Deputy Commissioner for System Transformation within the Rhode Island Department of Education and will teach "Urban Education Policy: System and Governance" this summer, a foundational course for Brown's Urban Education Policy graduate students.

Kiana Harriel MAT'24 incorporated her passion for arts education into her social studies classroom at East Providence High School by utilizing Visual Thinking Strategies.

Budget constraints and limited supplies of local tutors have caused many K-12 school districts to pivot from individual tutoring in-person toward small-group tutoring online to expand access to personalized instruction. Professor Matthew Kraft and co-author Virginia Lovinson, Ph.D., conducted a field experiment to explore the effect of increasing student-tutor ratios on middle school students’ math achievement and growth during an online tutoring program.

Alea Rubin Evens, MAT'24 utilized the Claim-Evidence-Reasoning framework to help develop biology students at Central Falls High School develop scientific reasoning and writing skills.

Kraft was motivated to run for an open seat on the School Committee to help strengthen public education, and will serve in this volunteer, non-partisan position in Belmont, Massachusetts for three years.

For her Urban Education Policy master’s capstone project, Abby McClain AM'24 utilized new quantitative data science skills to analyze the PPSD school lottery and suggest changes to increase placement equity.

For her Urban Education Policy master’s capstone project, Michaela Andreozzi AM'24 used a controlled study to examine the impacts of Providence Promise, a College Savings Account (CSA) program promoting educational equity in Providence.

Introducing Hannah Stoch, the Department of Education's new Social Media and Communications Assistant! Hannah is a rising junior concentrating in Education Studies and Science, Technology, & Society.

The capstone research project integrates all elements of the graduate learning experience and offers an opportunity to demonstrate the ability to apply the tools of education policy research by analyzing a contemporary policy issue.