Dr. Rebecca Herman Senior Policy Researcher and Education Chair, RAND Corporation

Dr. Herman specializes in conducting and evaluating research on school improvement, as well as translating research to practice. Dr. Herman was Principal Investigator of the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) Impact Evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants, and Project Director of the implementation sub-study. Further, she was Project Director of ED's recently completed study,Turning around Chronically Low Performing Schools. She chaired a panel to produce the Institute for Education Science's  practice guide, synthesizing the research evidence on turning around chronically low-performing schools. 

Dr. Herman's earlier work on effective school reforms includes leading An Educators' Guide to Schoolwide Reform, a critical evaluation of the research and implementation of the most prominent and promising comprehensive school reforms, as well as leading the first five-year phase of the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). She serves on several advisory panels, providing guidance on school improvement research, including the Education Writers Association National Research Advisory Panel and the Center for Disease Control's Guide for Community Preventive Services, and has provided Congressional testimony and briefings on school turnaround and reform.

Dr. Herman earned her PhD in sociology, specializing in education, at Johns Hopkins University. She trained and served as a teacher early in her career.