Kyra N. Caspary

Principal Senior Researcher, SRI Education

Kyra Caspary, PhD, studies the educational pathways that prepare youth to achieve their career and life goals. Drawing on her broad methodological expertise, she designs and conducts mixed-methods research studies that provide clients with actionable formative feedback for program improvement as well as evidence of effectiveness. Caspary’s research interests include secondary school transformation, career and technical education (CTE) and work-based learning, and the identification, measurement, and development of the skills and dispositions youth need to succeed in the workforce and postsecondary education.

Caspary is co-principal investigator of SRI’s study of Career Development Opportunities in Los Angeles Unified Schol District, part of the CTE Research Network 2.0 funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. She also co-leads SRI’s evaluation of the Barr Foundation’s Engage New England, a multiyear undertaking to create innovative school models designed to meet the needs of students who are off track to graduate. Caspary’s research on preparation for STEM careers includes a mixed-methods evaluation of a program aimed at increasing preparation for cybersecurity and computer science careers among high school students in Arizona.

Before joining SRI, Caspary conducted research on undergraduate admissions policy for the University of California system and managed the University of California Undergraduate Experience Survey, an online survey of all enrolled UC undergraduates. As a researcher at PACE (Policy Analysis for California Education), she led a qualitative study of professional development and retention programs for early childhood educators. She began her career in education running a volunteer-based tutoring program at a branch of the Austin Public Library.

Caspary earned her PhD in education from the University of California, Berkeley and holds a master’s degree from UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy.

Key projects

• Career Development Opportunities in Los Angeles Unified School District
• Evaluation of the Career Connected Pathways Project
• Evaluation of the Barr Foundation’s Engage New England Initiative  
• Evaluation of Los Angeles City College’s STEM Pathways Program
• Evaluation of the California Linked Learning District Initiative

Selected publications

• Transforming High Schools to Serve Students Who Are Off Track to Graduate: Lessons Learned from the Engage New England Initiative
• Evaluation of Los Angeles City College’s STEM Pathways program: Impacts of the Supplemental Instruction program on student outcomes
• What it takes to create linked learning: A report on lessons learned from evaluating the approach in practice
• Linked Learning Student Outcomes: Summary of Effects on High School and Early Postsecondary Education
• Scaling Deeper Learning for Equity: Lessons Learned from the Deeper Learning + Diffusion and Scaled Impact Initiative
• Designing Schools with and for Students: Lessons Learned from the Engage New England Initiative
• Los Angeles City College’s STEM Pathways program: Participation and impact
• Learning to teach to argue: Case studies in professional learning in evidence-based science writing. Teachers College Record, 123(7), 1–39
• Linked Learning and postsecondary transitions: A report on the early postsecondary education outcomes of Linked Learning students
• Access & equity in Linked Learning: A report on pathway access and academic outcomes for traditionally underserved students
• Developing protocols to support collaborative teacher reflection and professional learning for science argument writing
• International baccalaureate national trends for low-income students 2008–2014
• “No Show” Study: College Destinations of University of California Applicants and Admits Who Did Not Enroll, 1997-2002. Educational Policy, 19, 396–417
• Development of a multidimensional measure of academic engagement. Journal of Applied Measurement, 10, 371–393