Ed Policy Spring Seminar Series

Register for one or all. Events are in-person. Lunch provided. Space limited. Reserve your spot now.

Boston University’s Department of Educational Leaderhsip and Policy Studies and The Wheelock Educational Policy Center are excited to host three leading scholars this spring for a Ed Policy Seminar Series. Given growing interest in our local community and increased prominence of presenters, we’re happy to open this speaker series to individuals outside of the BU faculty and students typically in attendance.

All are welcome. The seminar series is geared towards an academic audience and will include detailed and technical discussion about methods used in the research, in addition to the policy context and implications.

Specific talk titles will be shared a week in advance with registered attendees. Confirmed speakers include:

Katharine Strunk (Michgan State University): February 28th 12:30 – 2:00pm

LOCATION: Boston University, Questrom School of Business, 4th Floor, 595 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA 02215

Katharine O. Strunk is a professor of education policy and, by courtesy, economics, and the Clifford E. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Education and the faculty director of the Michigan State University Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC). She is also the immediate past-president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP). Strunk’s current research through EPIC is focused on working with local and state education agencies on studies that will help them inform policy and practice. Rooted in the fields of economics and public policy, Strunk’s work centers on structures that are central to state and district operations and policy and the ways these structures affect policymakers’ decisions and outcomes. Her research examines teacher labor markets, school and district improvement and accountability policies, and efforts to improve student achievement. Follow her @KatharineStrunk and @epicedpolicy.

Jim Wyckoff (University of Virgina): April 18th 12:30 – 2:00pm

Jim Wyckoff is the Curry Memorial Professor of Education and Policy. He is the former director of the Center for Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness at the University of Virginia. He has published widely on issues of teacher labor markets, teacher preparation, recruitment, assessment and retention. In this work he has collaborated with policymakers in New York City, New York State and most recently the District of Columbia.

Currently, he is examining how teacher assessment and evaluation systems influence the quality of teaching, especially in traditionally low performing classrooms. He is a member of the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy. He has served on four National Research Council panels examining issues in teacher preparation, and the school lunch program, was the president of the Association for Education Finance and Policy, and served on the Policy Council for the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management. He has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Tom Dee (Stanford University): May 2nd 12:30 – 2:00pm

Thomas S. Dee, Ph.D., is the Barnett Family Professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education (GSE), a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) and the Faculty Director of the John W. Gardner Center for Youth and Their Communities. His research focuses largely on the use of quantitative methods to inform contemporary issues of public policy and practice. The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) awarded his collaborative research the Raymond Vernon Memorial Award in 2015 and again in 2019. He currently serves on the editorial boards of the American Educational Research Journal, the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and Education Finance and Policy.

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