Assistant Professor of Education and Policy
Ph.D., Stanford University

E-Mail: kstrunk@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 821-4216
Office: WPH 1103A
Expert Directory: http://www.usc.edu/uscnews/experts/1569.html

Dr. Katharine Strunk started as Assistant Professor of Education and Policy in USC Rossier in July 2009, with a courtesy appointment in the School of Policy, Planning and Development. She comes from the University of California, Davis, where she served as Assistant Professor of Education Policy in its School of Education.

Dr. Strunk's work is grounded in the theories of public and labor economics and policy analysis and utilizes quantitative methodologies taken from the fields of economics and sociology. Her research falls into three overarching categories related to K-12 education policy and reform: teacher labor markets, education governance and education finance. Specifically, her work on teacher labor markets focuses on questions concerning the determinants of teacher attrition, the retention and recruitment of high quality teachers, and the impact of teachers' unions on district- and school-level processes. Dr. Strunk's research on education governance explores the relationship between teachers' unions and school boards, and the varied impacts of accountability policies and their associated interventions. Dr. Strunk's work on education finance has generally examined the relationships between spending and student achievement.

Dr. Strunk received her doctorate from Stanford University in 2007 with a focus on Administration and Policy Analysis, and her Masters in Economics from Stanford University in 2005. She is a faculty affiliate of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). Her work has been published in Education Finance and Policy, the National Tax Journal and the Peabody Journal of Education. She is a recipient of the American Education Research Association Dissertation Grant and the American Education Finance Association New Scholar Award. Most recently, Dr. Strunk has been funded by the California Department of Education to examine the success of California's accountability interventions targeted at districts that have reached No Child Left Behind Program Improvement Year 3 status.