Heather Schwartz is the director of the Pre-K to 12 educational systems program and a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. She researches education and housing policies intended to reduce the negative effects of poverty on children and families. Her work falls in three policy areas intended to help close the income-based achievement gap: (1) economically integrative housing and school programs, (2) K-12 school reforms including social and emotional learning, and (3) early childhood learning opportunities. She leads mixed-method studies with experimental and non-experimental designs, and her methodological skills include benefit-cost analyses, survey design, and collecting focus group and interview data. Schwartz earned her Ph.D. in education policy from Columbia University.
