Alden R. B. Ducharme

Alden Ducharme (he/him) is a Ph.D. student in Education Policy at the University of Southern California Rossier School of Education, advised by Dr. Morgan Polikoff.

Ducharme is a curriculum and education policy scholar whose work examines how curricular reform is contested in public discourse and enacted in the classroom. He draws on policy implementation research and, using machine learning methods such as computational text analysis, Ducharme studies how curriculum implementation—particularly in mathematics—moves from adoption to practice and how public and media narratives shape this process.

His broader research portfolio examines the micropolitics of teacher-course assignment processes and how emerging technologies like AI reshape teachers' instructional practice to understand the conditions that shape how policies are altered before they reach students.

Ducharme holds a B.S. in Middle Level Education from the University of Vermont, where his research examined pre-service teacher preparation and proficiency-based assessment. He has since taught middle school mathematics and English in public, charter, and private schools in Vermont and Boston. His experience as a rural student and an urban educator informs his commitment to ensuring equitable, high-quality education for all learners.