Research

The Spencer Fellows Program offered a unique opportunity for 10 rising scholars in education policy to both interact with senior experts in the field around the topic of states’ impact and enhance their awareness of the role and importance of archival materials and research to their scholarship.

To support this effort, the Spencer Foundation contributed funding for Spencer Fellows to take part in the conference, which brought together 120 education scholars, policymakers, teachers, advocates, journalists, and archivists. 

Patricia Sullivan has had an extensive career in K–12 and postsecondary education policy in Washington, D.C.  She currently is the deputy director for Educational Issues at the American Federation of Teachers.  Prior to that she was an independent consultant heading up her own firm, Sullivan Consulting Services, where she provided advice to a range of clients on both the workings of Washington and states education agencies.  During her career, Patricia has served as the director of the Center on Education Policy, the deputy director of the Coun

Marshall Smith has been the program director for the Education Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, California, since 2001.  Prior to that, he was acting deputy secretary and undersecretary for education in the Clinton administration.  During the Carter administration, he was chief of staff to the secretary for education and assistant commissioner for policy studies in the Office of Education.  While not in government, he was at different times an associate professor at Harvard, and a professor at Stanford and at t

Kathleen D. Roe is Director of Operations at the New York State Archives. She oversees records management and archival services to state agencies, local governments and historical records repositories statewide. She also manages the State Archives facility, holding over 200 million items. Kathleen is past president of the Council of State Archivists and currently chairs the CoSA Government Relations Committee.

Lynn Olson has written about public education in the United States for more than 20 years.  A nationally recognized education journalist, she has won awards from the Education Writers Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and the International Reading Association.  In 2005, she won an award from the Consortium for Policy Research in Education for her outstanding contributions to education policy.  She is the managing editor for special projects at Education Week, an independent, national newspaper that c

Margaret began her career as a teacher of students with serious emotional disorders.  She earned her Ph.D.

Lorraine McDonnell is a professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara.  Prior to joining the UCSB faculty, Lorraine was a senior political scientist at RAND where her research focused on the design and implementation of federal and state education policies and their effects on school practices.  In her book, Persuasion, Politics, and Educational Testing (Harvard University Press, 2004), she examined the politics of student testing, particularly the curricular and political values underlying state assessm

Kathryn McDermott is assistant professor of education and public policy, and associate director of the Center for Education Policy, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She holds a joint appointment in the School of Education and the Center for Public Policy and Administration.  Her main research interest is on the balance of power among local, state, and federal education authorities, and the effect of that balance on educational quality and equity.  She is the author of Controlling Public Education: Localism Versus Equity (Un

Carl Kaestle is university professor emeritus in the departments of education, history, and public policy at Brown University.  He is also presently a resident fellow at the Spencer Foundation.  Carl has been the director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, the president of the National Academy of Education, vice-chair of the National Research Council’s Board on Testing and Assessment, a principal consultant for the PBS documentary School, and director of the Advanced Studies Fellowship Program at Brown.  With the postdocto

Carmen Perez Hogan’s lifelong goal has been to make the educational opportunities that exist for native English speaking children in America available to English language learners with limited English proficiency. She was a teacher and administrator in New York City, director of the bilingual teacher education programs at SUNY-Albany and the coordinator of the New York State Education Department’s Office of Bilingual Education.  She graduated from the New York City public schools, and earned a B.A. from Saint Joseph’s College and an M.A.