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Jennifer Hamilton

Pronouns: She/Her

Senior Vice President
Jennifer is an evaluation methodologist who leads teams to produce actionable results that inform decision-making and promote equity in education.

Jennifer is senior vice president of the Education & Child Development department at NORC. Over her 30-plus year research career, she has drawn on her training as a methodologist and her experiences as a former public housing resident and first-generation college student to help improve the social, academic, and economic outcomes of marginalized youth. She has established a reputation for being a creative thinker who brings extensive management expertise, tenacity, and a genuine appreciation for diversity of perspective to her work.

As vice president, Jennifer is committed to developing the next generation of confident, empowered, and empathetic researchers. In addition, she listens deeply to understand the opportunities and challenges that policymakers, practitioners, and other education stakeholders face to ensure that pragmatic research is developed and conducted in support of these needs. Lastly, she uses her deep substantive knowledge and methodological expertise to ensure that projects are conducted with the highest degree of rigor.

She serves as principal investigator on an array of research studies that span kindergarten to post-secondary education. She is leading an effort for the Gates Foundation to design, implement, test, and bring data sources together for a research and development ecosystem that helps educators access high-quality instructional materials that better meet the needs of Black, LatinX, and students experiencing poverty. To help improve the efficacy of civics education, Jennifer is overseeing separate evaluations of two supplemental action civics curriculum – Generation Citizen and Educating Youth for Positive Change – to assess their potential effects on high school students’ civic learning, motivation, and engagement.

Prior to joining NORC, Jennifer served as a senior scientist at Westat where she improved the rigor and internal validity of more than twenty i3 evaluations as a certified What Works Clearinghouse reviewer and oversaw numerous other education studies. Today, she remains motivated by her desire to make a positive impact in education through research, partnership, and empathy.

Education

PhD

University of Maryland

MA

The George Washington University

BA

The George Washington University

Appointments & Affiliations

Board of Directors & Former President

Eastern Evaluation Research Society

Project Contributions

Evaluating the U.S. Military’s Sexual Assault Prevention Programs

Rigorous evaluation of five initiatives aimed at preventing sexual harassment and sexual assault

Funder:

U.S. Department of Defense

Curriculum & Learning Improvement Project (CLIP)

Creating an innovative data ecosystem to support classroom instruction and education research

Client:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Graduate Research Fellowship Program Pilot Project

Innovating data collection methods to track National Science Foundation research fellowship outcomes

Client:

National Science Foundation

College Mentoring Programs Evaluation

Assessing ways to increase college completion rates for historically underserved students

Client:

ECMC Foundation

Curriculum & Learning Improvement Project (CLIP)

Creating an innovative data ecosystem to support classroom instruction and education research

Client:

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

“PreK On My Way” Evaluation

Assessing the impact and implementation of Scholastic’s new preschool curriculum

Client:

Scholastic

Assessing Distance Learning for the Bureau of Indian Education

Understanding how best to reach and teach students who lack broadband service

Client:

Bureau of Indian Education

Our Sunday Visitor Institute

Tailored survey development to improve and assess a Catholic charity’s initiatives

Client:

Our Sunday Visitor Institute

College Board Virtual Tutoring Program Evaluation

Assessing an intensive SAT math tutoring program for disadvantaged students

Client:

College Board

Ready Classroom Mathematics Curriculum Evaluation

Correlating the use of Ready Classroom Mathematics with student achievement

Client:

Curriculum Associates, LLC

Washington State K-12 Civics Education Survey

A mixed-methods data collection effort to thoroughly understand how Washington teaches civics

Client:

Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

Engaging Youth for Positive Change Program Evaluation

Evaluating whether a civics education curriculum helps improve rural community health outcomes

Client:

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Generation Citizen Evaluation

Evaluating how the innovative curriculum affects student learning, motivation, and engagement

Client:

Institute of Education Sciences

Combatting Pandemic Learning Loss

Providing data-driven insights to reduce COVID’s impact on STEM learning

Client:

National Science Foundation

Fulton County STEM Schools Study

An early assessment of how well new STEM high schools are serving those principles

Client:

Fulton County Schools

Publications