Ela Joshi

Education Researcher, SRI Education

Ela Joshi, PhD, brings a decade of experience collaborating across the education space to deeply understand, critically examine, and systematically improve how people interact with and within organizations. Joshi specializes in mixed-methods study designs that examine students’ and teachers’ experiences with program implementation, the use of social networks and networked improvement communities to bring education innovation to scale, and the impacts of innovative programs and policies on students’ from historically underserved backgrounds. She is interested in programs enhancing teacher effectiveness and teacher leadership as well as school efforts to improve equity and access for students from socially significant populations.

At SRI, Joshi contributes to several studies, including the Leveraging Evidence to Accelerate Recovery Nationwide (LEARN) Network funded by the Institute of Education Science (IES); the Examination of a State-Led Effort to Support Open & Equitable Practices in Tennessee funded by the Hewlett Foundation and conducted in partnership with Achieving the Dream; and the evaluation of the Math and Computational Thinking through 3D Making (MPACT) Program, funded by an Education Innovation and Research (EIR) grant. Joshi designs and executes rigorous program evaluations and descriptive studies, including developing logic models, measures of implementation fidelity, qualitative and quantitative data collection instruments, and mixed-methods analysis plans. Across her projects, Joshi leads the collection, analysis, and reporting of complex qualitative and quantitative data and has fluency interfacing with research participants from a variety of backgrounds, positions, and locales.

Joshi earned her PhD in education policy and leadership from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development, where she served as a doctoral research assistant on four mixed-methods research-practice partnerships. Joshi earned her MEd in elementary education from Arizona State University and her BA in philosophy, with dual minors in economics and digital communication, from Rutgers University. Previously, Joshi taught fifth grade in Phoenix, Arizona.

Key projects

• Math and Computational Thinking through 3D Making (MPACT) Program
• Leveraging Evidence to Accelerate Recovery Nationwide (LEARN) Network
• Examination of a State-Led Effort to Support Open & Equitable Practices in Tennessee
• Computational Literacy Across Secondary Settings (CLASS) Project
• CoolThink@JC Phase II Implementation Study

• In the NIC of Time: How Sustainable Are Networked Improvement Communities?*
• Consequences of Administrative Burden for Social Safety Nets That Support the Healthy Development of Children*
• “Set in stone” or “willing to grow”? Teacher sensemaking during a growth mindset initiative*
• Student-teacher race congruence: New evidence and insight from Tennessee*
• Mapping inequalities in local political representation: Evidence from Ohio school boards*
• World of Whistleblowing: From the altruist to the avenger*

Recent publications