About

I currently serve as the Director of National Research at EdChoice.

I am the author, editor, co-author, or co-editor of 12 books on education policy including Getting Education Right (Teachers College Press, 2024), Hybrid Homeschooling: A Guide to the Future of Education (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021) Bush-Obama School Reform: Lessons Learned (Harvard Education Press 2018), Educational Entrepreneurship Today (Harvard Education Press, 2016), Teacher Quality 2.0 (Harvard Education Press, 2014), New and Better Schools (Rowman and Littlefield, 2015), and Common Core Meets Education Reform (Teachers College Press, 2013).

In 2022, along with Christopher Scalia, I edited and contributed two essays to Conservative Persuasions, “a collection of essays by AEI scholars and other experts provid[ing] a helpful starting point for college students seeking to understand the principles and ideas driving mainstream conservative thought and engage in civil and substantive discourse with their peers.”

My analyses and commentary have been published widely in the media, including in USA Today, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. I have also been featured in education-specific outlets such as Education Week, Phi Delta Kappan, and Education Next. In addition to authoring numerous white papers, I have had academic work published in Education Finance and Policy, The Handbook of Education Politics and Policy, and the Journal of School Choice.

I earned my Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Arkansas. Before that, I worked as a 9th and 10th grade English teacher at St. Jude Educational Institute in Montgomery, Alabama as part of Notre Dame’s ACE Program. I completed my undergraduate degree in English at St. Louis University.

I also have appointments as an Adjunct Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and as a Senior Fellow at the Show-Me Institute.