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Laura M. Desimone
Associate Professor
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Education
1990: B.A., American Studies, Wesleyan University
1991: Master’s of Public Administration (M.P.A.), Concentration in Education Policy, American University
1996: Ph.D., Public Policy Analysis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Areas of Expertise
Policy effects on teaching and learning in the core academic subjects
Policy implementation
Improvement of methods for studying policy implementation and effects
Professional Biography
Dr. Desimone joined the faculty as
associate professor in 2007. Prior to her appointment at Penn GSE, she
served on the faculty at Vanderbilt University, worked as a senior
research scientist at the American Institutes for Research, and was a
post-doctoral research associate at Yale University‘s Bush Center in
Child Development and Social Policy. She also was a researcher at RAND
in Washington, DC, and the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center
in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Research Interests and Current Projects
Dr.
Desimone studies how state, district, and school-level policy can
better promote changes in teaching that lead to improved student
achievement and to closing the achievement gap between advantaged and
disadvantaged students. Her work contributes to theory, and informs
policy and classroom practice. Dr. Desimone’s research covers three
main areas: policy effects on teaching and learning, policy
implementation, and the improvement of methods for studying policy
effects and implementation (e.g., improving the quality of surveys and
the appropriate use of multiple methodologies). She studies all levels
of the system (national, state, district, school, and classroom), and
focuses on three policy areas at the forefront of education reform:
standards-based reform, comprehensive school reform, and teacher
quality initiatives (e.g., teachers’ professional development,
induction).
Dr. Desimone’s work has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including American Education Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Review of Research in Education, Educational Policy, Educational Administration Quarterly, and Teachers College Record.
Her work has been supported by grants from the Department of Education,
the National Science Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. Dr.
Desimone was a National Academy of Education post-doctoral fellow in
2002-2003.
Dr. Desimone serves in technical advisory roles to several national
organizations, including the National Board of Professional Teaching
Standards, the Comprehensive School Reform Clearinghouse, and the
National Study of No Child Left Behind. She is on the editorial board
of Educational Administration Quarterly and Educational Researcher.
She is currently Principal Investigator on a National Science
Foundation Teacher’s Professional Continuum (TPC) grant awarded in
April 2006—a five-year study of new middle-school mathematics teachers
in several districts in two states, charting the effects of their
induction/professional development on knowledge growth, changes in
instruction, and improvements in student achievement. Her other
research examines the relationship between policy, professional
development, and instruction aligned to standards and assessments. She
is also studying the role of teacher and teaching quality in closing
the achievement gap in the early grades.
Selected Publications
Desimone, L. (in press). Complementary methods for policy research. In D. Plank, G. Sykes, & B. Schneider (Eds.), AERA Handbook on Education Policy Research, section on Conducting Policy Research: Methodological Approaches. Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Desimone, L., Smith, T., & Frisvold, D. (in press). Is NCLB
increasing teacher quality for students in poverty? In A. Gamoran
(Ed.), Will Standards-based Reform in Education Help Close the Poverty Gap? Brookings Institution, Washington, DC.
Desimone, L. (in press). Implementation of whole-school change efforts. In W.T. Grant Foundation (Ed.), Improving Social Settings to Improve Outcomes for Adolescents. England: Oxford University Press.
Desimone, L. (in press). Toward a more refined theory of school
effects: A study of the relationship between professional community and
mathematics teaching in early elementary school. In Cecil Miskel and
Wayne Hoy (Eds.), Research and Theory in Educational Administration. Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
Desimone, L.M., Smith, T.S., & Rowley, K. (2007). Does Policy
Influence Mathematics and Science Teachers’ Participation in
Professional Development? Teachers College Record,109(5), 1086-1122.
Desimone, L. (2006). Consider the source: Response differences among
teachers, principals and districts on survey questions about their
education policy environment. Educational Policy, 20(4), 640-676.
Desimone, L. (2006). Consider the source: Response differences among
teachers, principals and districts on survey questions abut their
education policy environment. Educational Policy, 20(4), 640-676.
Desimone, L.M., Smith, T.S., Hayes, S., & Frisvold, D. (2005).
Beyond accountability and Average math scores: Relating multiple state
education policy attributes to changes in student achievement in
procedural knowledge, conceptual understanding and problem solving in
mathematics. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 24(4),5-18.
Desimone, L., Smith, T., Baker, D., & Ueno, K. (2005). The
distribution of teaching quality in mathematics: Assessing barriers to
the reform of United States mathematics instruction from an
international perspective. American Educational Research Journal, 42(3), 501-535.
Smith, T., Desimone, L., Ueno, K. (2005). “Highly qualified” to do
what? The relationship between NCLB teacher quality mandates and the
use of reform-oriented instruction in middle school math. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 27(1), 75-109.
Desimone, L., & LeFloch, K. (2004). Are we asking the right
questions? Using cognitive interviews to improve surveys in education
research. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 26(1), 1-22.
Desimone, L. (2002). How can comprehensive school reform models be successfully implemented? Review of Educational Research, 72(3), 433-479.
Desimone, L., Porter, A.C., Garet, M., Suk Yoon, K., & Birman,
B. (2002). Effects of professional development on teachers’
instruction: Results from a three-year study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 81-112.
Desimone, L., Garet, M., Birman, B., Porter, A., & Yoon, K.
(2001). How do district management and implementation strategies relate
to the quality of the professional development that districts provide
to teachers? Teachers College Record, 104(7), 1265-1312..
Garet, M., Porter, A., Desimone, L., Birman, B., & Yoon, K.
(2001). What makes professional development effective? Analysis of a
national sample of teachers. American Education Research Journal, 38 (3), 915-945.
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