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Tim Silva
Senior Researcher and Associate Director
Tim Silva is a senior researcher and associate director of human services research who has contributed to many of Mathematica’s hallmark education evaluations. His work includes large, complex, multisite evaluations of the Upward Bound and Talent Search precollege programs for disadvantaged youth, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, reading comprehension curricula, mandatory-random student drug testing, and elementary school teachers from alternative certification programs.
As a qualitative researcher, Silva has been responsible for activities such as recruiting programs, school districts and schools into rigorous evaluations, and designing, conducting and analyzing data from site visits and stakeholder interviews.
At present he works on four projects for the U.S. Department of Education. He is deputy director of two evaluations using experimental designs: one examines the effectiveness of the Talent Transfer Initiative, a program that offers large cash stipends for highly effective teachers to work in high-needs schools, and the other examines the effectiveness of secondary math teachers who entered the profession through Teach For America and several training programs affiliated with The New Teacher Project. Silva also is the principal investigator on a new study of teacher residency programs. In addition, he reviews studies conducted by the 10 Regional Educational Laboratories.
Before joining Mathematica, Silva conducted descriptive research on a wide range of education topics at the U.S. General Accounting Office for six years. He has an M.A. in public policy studies and an M.A. in sociology from Duke University.
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- Areas of Expertise
- Key Projects
- Publications
- Education evaluations
- Large, complex, multisite evaluations
- "An Evaluation of Teachers Trained Through Different Routes to Certification" (February 2009)
- "The Involvement of Employment Networks in Ticket to Work." In "Ticket to Success? Early Findings from the Ticket to Work Evaluation," special issue, Journal of Vocational Rehabilitation (November 2007)
- "Evaluation of the Ticket to Work Program. Assessment of Post-Rollout Implementation and Early Impacts" (May 2007)