Patricia Burch

  • Professor of Education
  • Co-director of CEPEG

Research Concentration

  • K-12 Education Policy

Education

PhD, Stanford University

Expertise

  • Educational privatization, organizational and institutional theory and comparative policy, qualitative and mixed research methods
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Bio

I am a professor at the USC Rossier School of Education and a Co- Faculty Director of the USC EdPolicy Hub.  I received a Ph.D. in Education and M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University. I have over twenty-five years of experience studying large scale reforms aimed at improving equity in large urban school systems including after school programs, teacher quality, shared leadership and instructional improvement. I use mixed methods to study the design, implementation and effects of policies aimed at improving access to high quality instruction for urban public-school students.  In this work, I focus specifically on how schools are shaped by broader social and economic dynamics including education markets. I am the author of five highly regarded books (one on mixed methods research in program and policy evaluation) and over 40 peer reviewed articles and chapters. I am a former editor of the internationally known Journal of Education Policy and currently serve on the board of AERA Open. My editorials on educational issues have appeared in Hechinger Report, EdSource, Education Week, the 74 million among other media.   

My expertise is in educational privatization, organizational and institutional theory and comparative policy. My central conceptual contribution to the study of education privatization is how market forces become structurally embedded within public education through what I term “hidden markets.” Moving beyond debates about overt privatization, my work reveals that privatization now operates less through explicit ideological shifts and more through the technical and contractual integration of private actors into the everyday infrastructure of schooling. By mapping these systemic interconnections, I reframe privatization as a post-neoliberal phenomenon—one that reconfigures governance, accountability, and equity not by removing the public sector, but by reshaping its operations through ongoing partnerships with commercial entities. This perspective challenges researchers and practitioners to recognize and critically engage with the subtle, infrastructural ways in which market logic shapes educational experience and opportunity.

Presently, I am conducting several collaborative research projects focused on infrastructural interdependencies between markets and education in multiple policy areas: artificial intelligence, out of school time, alternative schools and juvenile justice. 

Awards and Grants

USC Mentoring Award 2018

Courses Taught

 

  • Policy and Politics in Urban Education
  • Organizations, Institutions and Educational Equity
  • Research Methods

Publications

Research

am a professor at the USC Rossier School of Education and a Co- Faculty Director of the USC EdPolicy Hub.  I received a Ph.D. in Education and M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University. I have over twenty-five years of experience studying large scale reforms aimed at improving equity in large urban school systems including after school programs, teacher quality, shared leadership and instructional improvement. I use mixed methods to study the design, implementation and effects of policies aimed at improving access to high quality instruction for urban public-school students.  In this work, I focus specifically on how schools are shaped by broader social and economic dynamics including education markets. I am the author of five highly regarded books (one on mixed methods research in program and policy evaluation) and over 40 peer reviewed articles and chapters. I am a former editor of the internationally known Journal of Education Policy and currently serve on the board of AERA Open. My editorials on educational issues have appeared in Hechinger Report, EdSource, Education Week, the 74 million among other media.   

My expertise is in educational privatization, organizational and institutional theory and comparative policy. My central conceptual contribution to the study of education privatization is how market forces become structurally embedded within public education through what I term “hidden markets.” Moving beyond debates about overt privatization, my work reveals that privatization now operates less through explicit ideological shifts and more through the technical and contractual integration of private actors into the everyday infrastructure of schooling. By mapping these systemic interconnections, I reframe privatization as a post-neoliberal phenomenon—one that reconfigures governance, accountability, and equity not by removing the public sector, but by reshaping its operations through ongoing partnerships with commercial entities. This perspective challenges researchers and practitioners to recognize and critically engage with the subtle, infrastructural ways in which market logic shapes educational experience and opportunity.

Presently, I am conducting several collaborative research projects focused on infrastructural interdependencies between markets and education in multiple policy areas: artificial intelligence, out of school time, alternative schools and juvenile justice.