Jennifer O’Day

American Institutes for Research

Jennifer O’Day is an institute fellow at the American Institutes of Research. For nearly 40 years, Dr. O’Day has carried out research; advised national, state, and local policy makers; and written extensively in the areas of systemic standards-based reform and improvement, educational equity, accountability, and capacity-building strategies. Since joining AIR in 2002, Dr. O’Day has led the state evaluation of California’s Public School Accountability Act (2002-03), the national evaluation of State Implementation of NCLB (2003-08), and the national evaluation of the implementation of Title III of ESEA. This and related work led to Dr. O’Day’s emphasis on the vital role that school districts play in establishing the conditions for meaningful change in schools and classrooms. In line with this emphasis, she led a four-year investigation (2004-08) of the implementation and effects of the literacy reforms in San Diego City Schools and convened a broad review of the reform strategies in New York City under the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein (Education Reform in New York City: Ambitious Change in the Nation’s most Complex School System, Harvard Education Press, 2011). Dr. O’Day is the founder and chair emeritus of the California Collaborative on District Reform, which for 19 years has joined researchers, district practitioners, state policymakers, and funders in an on-going, evidence-based dialogue and collective action to improve instruction and student learning for all students in California’s urban school systems, with particular emphasis on linguistic minorities, who make up approximately one-fifth of California’s student population. Her most recent book (with Marshall S. Smith) draws on sixty years of equity-driven policy, practice, and research in education to suggest a coherent three-pronged approach to improvement and equity in the nation’s schools and school systems (Opportunity for All: A Framework for Quality and Equality in Education, Harvard Education Press, 2019).