Viki Young

Viki M. Young, Ph.D., a senior researcher in SRI International’s Center for Education Policy, conducts national, state, and local research and evaluation projects on K–12 policy and reform. She specializes in human capital development, college readiness for underserved youth, organizational supports for teachers’ use of data, charter school systems, and district leadership and reform. Young has expertise in case study and survey methods and leads projects to study implementation and impact using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods.

Young is the principal investigator for the study of the Rio Grande Valley Center for Teaching and Leading Excellence, funded by a federal Investing in Innovation (i3) grant. The goal of the center is to strengthen the human capital pipeline for teachers, teacher leaders, and school leaders in one of the most impoverished regions of the United States. The study encompasses two randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental approaches to investigate the effects of training on teacher and student outcomes. Survey, interview, and observation methods are being used to examine implementation.

Young is also the principal investigator for the study on Supports for Postsecondary Success for At-Risk Youth, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Using case studies drawn nationally, the study will generate lessons from the field on successful strategies to prevent high school dropout and to prepare at-risk youth for postsecondary education. She is also co-principal investigator for a National Science Foundation-funded feasibility study on the relationship between inclusive STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) high school program features and postsecondary STEM education and career interests. Young directs the evaluation of the Human Resources Pilot—one of three human capital initiatives funded under the Massachusetts Race to the Top award—to examine pilot districts’ strategies for implementing aligned human resources policies that affect teacher and teaching quality.

Young directed the four-year longitudinal evaluation of the Texas High School Project (THSP). Using qualitative and quantitative methods, the evaluation team followed high schools implementing reforms according to models that included Texas Science; Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (T-STEM); Early College High School; High Schools That Work; and other high school redesign. The team examined the outcomes of THSP schools compared with matched comparison schools using a quasi-experimental design.

Previous work includes studies on the Renaissance Schools Fund-supported Renaissance 2010 schools in Chicago; state policy influences on local dual-enrollment programs for the U.S. Department of Education; teacher development for the Teaching and California’s Future initiative; standards-based reform in urban school districts for the Pew Network for Standards-Based Reform; and Global Lab Curriculum, a middle school inquiry-based earth science curriculum developed by TERC.

Young holds a Ph.D. in education administration and policy analysis from Stanford University. Before pursuing education policy research, she was a strategy consultant with The Monitor Company.