Shelby Leigh Smith

Shelby Smith is a Ph.D. Candidate in Urban Education Policy at the Rossier School of Education. She has concurrently completed a Master of Public Policy at the Price School of Public Policy. Shelby's research examines the priorities and outcomes of K-12 education policies that promote educational privatization with projects that focus on charter authorizing, school voucher policies, and district contracting practices. To do so, she uses a combination of econometric, natural language processing, and qualitative approaches. The goal of Shelby's research is to inform state- and district-level policy decisions that support equitable student outcomes.  

While at USC, Shelby has contributed to student learning at the undergraduate, masters, and Ph.D. level through courses focused on policy analysis, quantitative research methods, economics, and writing development. In Rossier, Shelby served as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods in Education and Organizations and Policy: Current Issues. In 2024, Shelby was also the instructor for a Summer Bridge course hosted by the Norman Topping Student Aid Fund in the USC Office of Academic Programs. For her teaching efforts and impact, Shelby was awarded one of the 2025 USC University Outstanding Teaching Assistant Awards. Shelby also contributes to student life in Rossier through her roles as a co-leader of the Student Community of PhDs in Education (SCoPE) and a student representative in faculty meetings. 

USC University Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award – 2025

USC Rossier Ph.D. Teaching Assistant of the Year – 2023-2024