Christine Padilla
Christine Padilla is assistant director of SRI International’s Center for Education Policy. Over the past 37 years, she has evaluated a wide variety of education programs under contracts and grants from the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, state governments, and private foundations. This work has focused on program implementation, policy analysis, district and school reform, special populations, and accountability issues and more recently on high school reform and postsecondary transition issues.
Padilla is currently directing two studies for the U.S. Department of Education. One is to identify promising practices to support school improvement in rural education, and the other is to understand the role of career academies in improving secondary education. She is also participating in three studies to better prepare students for postsecondary education and careers—two sponsored by the Irvine Foundation to develop and implement career pathways to improve high school and postsecondary outcomes for at-risk youth and one a study of strategies to engage at-risk students so that they graduate from high school.
Previously, Padilla was principal investigator for an evaluation of a pilot project in California to develop district capacity to support school improvement as well as the regional capacity of county offices of education to provide technical assistance for districts and schools identified for improvement under No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Under a 5.5-year task order for the U.S. Department of Education on national technology initiatives, she codirected a national study of the implementation of student data systems and the broader set of practices involving the use of data to improve instruction. As part of a larger effort by the Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of Title I under NCLB, Padilla directed a longitudinal evaluation of accountability systems and policies at the state, district, and school levels. Other work in education reform has extended to examinations of the impact of changes in policies and practices regarding disadvantaged and special education students, educational technology in grades K–12, and technical assistance to states and districts to develop evaluations of program impacts.
Padilla is experienced in managing large-scale projects with both qualitative and quantitative research methods, including case study design, qualitative data collection and analysis, survey design and analysis, and the integration of data from multiple sources. She has worked with policymakers at the national, state, and local levels. Padilla has translated research into resource materials for practitioners and the public and is the author or coauthor of more than 40 reports, book chapters, journal articles, and papers for professional organizations.
Padilla holds degrees in education and business from the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of Santa Clara. Before joining SRI, Padilla earned her secondary teaching credential and taught ninth-grade history.
