Jim Wyckoff directs the Education Policy PhD program and the Center on Education Policy and Workforce Competitiveness. He is a PI on grants from NSF and several foundations to explore policies on teacher preparation, recruitment and retention on the quality of the teaching workforce and outcomes for students. Wyckoff currently serves on the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Children Eligible for School Nutrition Programs, the Scientific Review Panel of the U.S. Department of Education, the editorial board of Education Finance and Policy and on several advisory panels.
Current projects include:
- Math for America
- School leadership, personnel practices, and the impact of working conditions on teachers' career decisions and school improvement
- Alternative Certification in the Long Run
Daphna Bassok is an Assistant Professor of Education Policy. Her research is focused on early childhood education policy with a particular interest in the impacts of preschool policies on the academic and social well-being of low-income children. She is currently working on projects examining efforts to improve preschool quality through changes in the early childhood teacher labor force.
Current projects include:
- The Availability of Early Childhood Education and Care in the U.S.
- The Effects of Preschool Expansion: The Case of Florida’s Voluntary Pre-K Program
In addition to Professors Bassok and Wyckoff, the program benefits from the affiliation of several other faculty at the University of Virginia with research and teaching interests that are aligned with the goals of the program.
Thomas S. Dee, is a Professor of Public Policy and Economics and a Research Professor of Education at the University of Virginia. His research focuses largely on the use of quantitative methods (e.g., panel data techniques, instrumental variables, and random assignment) to inform contemporary policy debates in the fields of education and health. For example, some of his recent work consists of econometric evaluations of incentive and accountability-based reforms in education. He is currently directing a randomized control trial, which examines whether an intervention that buffers students against “stereotype threat” can close the minority achievement gaps in several high-poverty middle schools.
Brian Pusser is an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the Curry School of Education. He has published widely on issues of higher education organization and governance, state higher education policy, international and comparative postsecondary education, and the emerging market competition in higher education. His current work focuses on state and federal policies shaping access and success for adult and nontraditional students in postsecondary education. His research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Sloan Foundation and Lumina Foundation for Education. Pusser has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Higher Education and the Review of Higher Education. He is also an affiliate of the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California and the Seminario de Educación Superior de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.
Sarah Turner is a Professor of Economics and Education. Dr. Turner studies the economics of education, labor economics, and public finance. She is an expert in econometric methods, using these methods in studies of voucher and subsidy effects on educational outcomes and is particularly interested in the finance of teacher training.
Heather Wathington is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education. Dr. Wathington’s research interests include: access and equity in higher education; the attainment and achievement of students of color; the development and purpose of minority-serving institutions; developmental education; and community college student success. One of her current projects focuses on how learning communities and summer accelerated bridge programs affect the academic outcomes of postsecondary students. Another project examines the role of historically black colleges in producing Black graduates.
