Get Updates
Susanne N. James-Burdumy
Associate Director of Research
Susanne James-Burdumy, an associate director of research, is an expert in the design and conduct of rigorous evaluations of educational programs and interventions.
James-Burdumy currently directs the large national evaluation of Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants for the U.S. Department of Education. She also directs a random assignment study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to evaluate Playworks, a program that provides elementary school students with opportunities for physical activity and play during the school day. She is also the principal investigator of the adolescent literacy and beginning reading topic areas of the What Works Clearinghouse.
In past work for the U.S. Department of Education, she directed an evaluation of mandatory-random student drug testing programs and an evaluation of reading comprehension programs for fifth-grade students, and was deputy director of the first large national random assignment study of after-school programs. She also directed an evaluation of high school reform efforts in Boston Public Schools.
James-Burdumy has published in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Urban Health, and Journal of Labor Economics. She holds a Ph.D. in economics from the Johns Hopkins University.
Staff Profile
- Areas of Expertise
- Key Projects
- Professional Activities
- Publications
- Design and conduct rigorous evaluations of educational programs and interventions
- Invited presentation, American Evaluation Association Annual Meeting, Anaheim, CA (November 2011)
- Invited presentation, American Educational Research Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA (April 2011)
- Invited presentation, American Evaluation Association Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX (November 2010)
- Member, American Educational Research Association and American Evaluation Association
- "Findings from a Randomized Experiment of Playworks: Selected Results from Cohort I" (April 2012)
- "The Effectiveness of Mandatory-Random Student Drug Testing: A Cluster Randomized Trial." Journal of Adolescent Health (February 2012)
- "The Effectiveness of Mandatory-Random Student Drug Testing" (July 2010)