Julie C. Harris

Senior Researcher, SRI Education

Julie Harris, PhD, is a senior education researcher who primarily designs and conducts quantitative research studies. She has knowledge and experience with a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods with more than a decade of experience designing, implementing, and leading research studies; preparing data set documentation and codebooks; preparing, implementing, and analyzing surveys; writing reports for the federal government and education stakeholders; and disseminating research findings to a wide variety of audiences.

At SRI, Harris is the principal investigator on three Regional Educational Laboratory – Appalachia research projects on career and technical education (CTE). One is an examination of the alignment between West Virginia’s CTE programs and the labor market. The other two are analyses of student CTE credential attainment and postsecondary institution enrollment in connection with Virginia’s recent requirement that students also pass an approved CTE assessment to earn a Standard Diploma. Harris is also leads several evaluations, including evaluations for Barr’s Engage New England initiative, two evaluations supported by the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter Schools Program Replication and Expansion Grants, and the Institute of Education Sciences’ (IES) Study of District and School Uses of Federal Education Funds.

Before joining SRI, Harris worked at CNA as a research analyst on two IES-funded evaluations of Florida’s college readiness and remediation policies. Harris was deeply involved in the evaluation of Florida’s College and Career Readiness Initiative (FCCRI), which was a statewide mandate of college readiness testing and transition courses for targeted high school students. She used quantitative methods to evaluate the impact of FCCRI on student outcomes using data from Florida’s K-20 education data warehouse. Harris also worked in conjunction with Florida State University on an evaluation of Florida’s developmental education redesign, developing interview protocols, collecting qualitative data through interviews and focus groups at Florida’s colleges, and analyzing survey data collected from administrators at Florida’s colleges.

Harris earned a PhD in educational policy from Michigan State University (MSU). She was also an IES predoctoral fellow in the economics of education training program at MSU. Much of her work at MSU was on school choice and English learners. For her dissertation, Harris conducted an evaluation of Houston Independent School District’s magnet school program, which included a quantitative analysis of the impact of magnet schools on integration and student achievement. Harris received an MS and BA in economics from the University of North Texas.

Key projects

• Regional Educational Lab (REL) Appalachia
• Study of District and School Uses of Federal Education Funds
• Evaluation of Engage New England: Doing high school differently
• Evaluation for Charter Schools Program Replication and Expansion Grant for Alpha Public Schools
• Evaluation for Charter Schools Program Replication and Expansion Grant for Rocketship Public Schools