Education Policy: Homepage
Policymakers at the federal, state and local levels are actively exploring strategies to improve educational outcomes for all students. Increasingly these strategies include dramatic changes in the way schools are organized, in who teaches and how these teachers are prepared, and in how schools are held accountable for student outcomes. Unfortunately, there is little good evidence on which to base many of these important policy decisions. This has led to a growing need for careful, experimental and quasi-experimental research to inform key education policy issues.
The Curry program in Educational Policy provides students with preparation that draws on a theoretical foundation and employs appropriate methods to offer causal evidence on important education policy questions. The program is organized on four conceptual components: strong preparation in methods that permit causal inference, a grounding in a social science discipline, an understanding of the working of schools, and working knowledge of the existing educational policy landscape and literature.
While coursework is important to student preparation, a close mentoring relationship with faculty is crucial to the design of the program. Students will work closely with faculty on research projects to examine the impact of a variety of educational policies. Graduates are prepared to take positions in academia or research organizations.
The Virginia Center for Education Policy