USC EdPolicy Hub
The USC EdPolicy Hub collaborates with schools, education systems, and community colleges throughout Southern California to conduct rigorous, actionable, boundary-spanning research. Research results—shared with language and formats geared for practitioners and policymakers—inform decisions for educators, policymakers, and families, ultimately improving student outcomes.
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For more information, read the USC EdPolicy Hub Summary.
Why USC?
The Hub is based at the USC Rossier School of Education as part of Dean Pedro Noguera’s Educational Equity Initiative. USC Rossier has an unparalleled network of graduates working as district leaders across Southern California. From our USC Rossier base, we will bring in expertise from across the university including the USC Price School of Public Policy, the Center for Applied Research in Education, and other research centers and researchers both within and beyond USC Rossier, ensuring that we can always match the appropriate expertise and methods to the problems at hand.
USC Rossier has an unparalleled network of graduates working as district leaders in Southern California and across the state with whom we are collaborating to drive this work. This includes more than 80 superintendents who are active in the Dean’s Superintendent Advisory Group.
Who We Are?
Jon Fullerton
Jon Fullerton, Hub Executive Director, is a Research Professor at USC Rossier. He has over twenty years’ experience in using data to guide system improvement and the effective use of financial resources in the education sector. Before coming to USC, Fullerton was the Executive Director of the Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) at Harvard University. While at CEPR, he founded the Strategic Data Project (SDP) which places and trains analytic data fellows across the PK12 and postsecondary sectors. Fullerton has also served as the Board of Education’s Director of Budget and Financial Policy for the Los Angeles Unified School District and was Vice-President of Strategy, Evaluation, Research, and Policy at the Los Angeles Education Partnership.
Anna Rosefsky Saavedra
Anna Rosefsky Saavedra, Hub Director of Research, is a Research Scientist and co-director of CARE. She is an applied education researcher with specialization in the areas of student-centered pedagogy, and families’ experiences with education. She currently co-leads USC’s Understanding America Study education work with Dr. Polikoff. Her recent research prompted the College Board to change their teacher professional learning, curriculum, and/or exams to be more project-based in a third of their AP courses, with more changes forthcoming.
Morgan Polikoff
Morgan Polikoff, Hub Faculty co-Director, is an Associate Professor of Education at USC Rossier. He studies curriculum, standards, accountability, and assessment policy and is the author of 2021’s Beyond Standards: The Fragmentation of Education Governance and the Promise of Curriculum Reform. He also investigates public opinion on education policy and families’ experiences in schools using state- and nationally-representative surveys, including USC’s Understanding America Study.
Patricia Burch
Patricia Burch, Hub Faculty co-Director, is a Professor of Education at USC Rossier with over twenty-five years of experience studying educational reforms. She works in partnership with local, state and Federal policy makers to understand contemporary controversies and practical dilemmas in advancing educational equity. She is the author of numerous articles on these topics including (with Carolyn Heinrich) the 2016 Mixed Methods for Policy Research and Program Evaluation.
Soumya Mishra
Soumya Mishra, is a postdoctoral research associate with the IES-funded Leveraging Technology and Student Engagement (LTES) project. Soumya’s research interests include student access and success in American community colleges as well as higher education policy in South Asian countries. Her current work involves mixed methods research on institutional responses to instructional challenges created by Covid-19, differences in student outcomes between various instructional modalities, and cost analysis of instruction across modalities. Soumya holds a bachelors degree from Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University. She earned a masters and PhD in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Marco Torres
Marco Torres, is a project researcher with the USC EdPolicy Hub. Marco has a masters degree from the Leadership and Policy Studies program at Steinhardt School of Education at New York University and has worked alongside organizations such as The Center for an Urban Future, Make the Road New York, Ronald McDonald House - NYC, and the Rockefeller School of Government. Marco served as a lead researcher and writer on the 2021 ETS /College Promise report on first-generation student success, contributed to a book chapter in the recently published Working for a Future: Equity and Access in Work-based Learning for Young People, and, has co-written an academic paper on Latinx leadership and higher education, which was published in the 2021 Fall Issue of the Journal of Applied Research in Community Colleges (JARCC).
Amie Rapaport
Research Scientist and Co-Director of the USC Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE)
Dan Silber
Research Scientist at the USC Center for Applied Research in Education
Huriya Jabbar,
USC Rossier Associate Professor of Education.
Marshall Garland
Research Scientist and Co-Director of the USC Center for Applied Research in Education (CARE)
Pedro A. Noguera
Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education
Royel Johnson
USC Rossier Associate Professor of Education
Jun Byon, USC Rossier School of Education
Alvin Makori, USC Rossier School of Education
Jeimee Estrada Miller, USC Price School of Public Policy
Jake Scollan Rowley, USC Rossier School of Education
Shelby Smith is a USC Rossier School of Education
Partners
CARE
CANDLE
California Community Foundation/FEDCO
Eli & Edythe Broad Foundation
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Downey USD
Ednovate
Hawthorne Elementary School District
Long Beach Unified School District
Los Angeles Community College District
For more information, read these details about USC EdPolicy Hub Leadership.
Equity, Impact, Transparency: Rethinking Ed Vendor Contracts After ESSER
Using purchasing data from GovSpend, Patricia Burch argues now that the health crisis has passed and COVID funds are largely spent, districts must reassess how the contracts they sign support schools.
Key lessons from research about project-based teaching and learning
High-quality materials, professional learning supports, and a schoolwide PBL culture are markers of successful PBL programs. See Anna Saavedra and Amie Rapaport’s article summarizing lessons learned through studying seven programs.
News
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USC Rossier EdPolicy Hub awarded grant to create “Education-to-Workforce” network
With support from a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant, the USC Rossier EdPolicy Hub will establish a network of Local Education Agencies throughout Southern California to identify policies that strengthen educational outcomes and improve workforce readiness.
News
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Many families don't know how much the pandemic harmed their child's learning; that's a problem
COVID recovery is not proceeding at the needed pace in California. Drawing from Understanding America Study education data, Morgan Polikoff and Anna Saavedra provide some thoughts on what to do in this EdSource article
News
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Beyond test scores: Broader academic consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic on American students
Reviewing three years of literature, this report by Morgan Polikoff, Isabel Clay, and Daniel Silver synthesizes the non-test academic impacts of COVID on children. The report finds substantial harm and widening gaps in areas like attendance, course completion, and community college enrollment.
Pressroom
Survey finds bipartisan support for public schools, wide gaps on LGBTQ, race issues in education (Forbes)
Support for teaching gender identity in schools is split, even among Democrats (New York Times)
How Americans really feel about the teaching of controversial topics in schools (USC Today)
Chronic Absenteeism Is a Crisis. Do Parents Get It? (EdWeek)
Deep political divide around race, LGBTQ+ topics in schools, new USC study finds (EdSource)
Teachers and students are wary about discussing gender identity, study finds (USAToday)
Support for Teaching Gender Identity in School Is Split, Even Among Democrats (Yahoo)
School absenteeism has become a big problem but we can do something about it (Forbes)
The 74 article on how Teens are Divided on Teaching Race, Gender Identity - Like Their Parents
Chalkbeat article on how Kids Should Learn about LGBTQ Issues at School?
Contact Us
For more information, email us at edpolhub@usc.edu.
The USC Rossier Center on Education Policy, Equity and Governance (CEPEG) is joining the USC EdPolicy Hub.