I am a Senior Associate in the Division of Social and Economic Policy at Abt Associates. I’ve conducted education research and evidence reviews on a variety of topics, including interventions intended to improve child outcomes, policies related to school and teacher quality, and school network expansion. My focus is on helping schools, districts, and education agencies improve the quality of educational opportunities. I also teach Economic Inquiry in Education at American University. Earlier in my career, I taught preschool and kindergarten in New York City.
PhD in Education Policy
University of Maryland
EdM in Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education
BA in Psychology & Sociology
Rutgers University
Jackson, C. (2022). Democratizing the Development of Evidence. Educational Researcher. Online first on November 19, 2021.
Tarasawa, B., Gotwals, A.W., & Jackson, C., eds. (2020) Assessment Education: Bridging Research, Theory, and Practice to Promote Equity and Student Learning. Rowman & Littlefield.
Carinci, J., Meyer, S. & Jackson, C., eds. (2020) Linking Teacher Preparation Program Design and Implementation to Outcomes for Teachers and Students. IAP Book Series.
Wissinger, D. R., De La Paz, S., & Jackson, C. (2020, February 10). The Effects of Historical Reading and Writing Strategy Instruction With Fourth- Through Sixth-Grade Students. Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication.
Jackson, C. & Caswell, L. (2021, Dec 2). Build Back Better Provides Opportunities for Improving Teacher Preparation Abt Associates
Jackson, C., Harrison, C., Pullen, K.R., & Lowenstein, C. (2021, May 24). What Education Researchers Can Learn From Teachers Education Week: Classroom Q & A with Larry Ferlazzo.
Jackson, C., Pershan, M., & Woulfin, S. (2021, May 25). ‘There’s a Lot of Potential Learning From Teachers Waiting to Happen’ Education Week: Classroom Q & A with Larry Ferlazzo.
Jackson, C. 2019. When It Makes Sense to Experiment on Students — or “The Zone of RCTs”.
Jackson, C. 2019. Correlation is Not Causation and Other Boring but Important Cautions for Interpreting Education Research.
Jackson, C. 2019. Why Is There a Disconnect Between Research and Practice and What Can Be Done About It?.
Jackson, C. 2015. The Magic of Multiple Measures.
Jackson, C. 2015. Research on Teacher Evaluation Metrics: The Weaponization of Correlations.
About Practice (August 2022). Democratizing the Development of Evidence
Donuts in the Lounge: A Podcast for Educators (March 2022). The Rules Come From Somewhere
The Intersect (February 2022). The Whole Story: Education, Housing, and What the Qualitative Data Tell Us Abt Associates.
Let’s K-12 Better. (September 2020). Let’s Talk About… Education Policy and Research
I sometimes get asked for resources to support the use of research and evidence in education. These are few I’ve found useful:
Open SDP provides data, analyses and tutorials for every stage of the analytic cycle, from preparing and standardizing your data, to conducting analyses and producing visualizations.
The What Works Clearinghouse reviews the existing research on different programs, products, practices, and policies in education.
Urban Institute’s Education Data Explorer makes it easy to access and analyze education data from multiple datasets.
My regular reads include Brookings Institution’s Brown Center Chalkboard for blog posts from a variety of education researchers and Chalkbeat for great journalism on education issues. For a parent and student perspective on education, check out the Let’s K-12 Better podcast.