Staff

Roberto Agodini, Director

Roberto Agodini is a senior economist and director of Mathematica’s Center for Improving Research Evidence. He is an expert in the design and conduct of studies aimed at understanding the effectiveness of education programs and policies designed to improve student outcomes.

Currently, he is the study director and principal investigator of a large-scale evaluation for the ED that uses randomized controlled trial techniques to understand the effects of four different elementary school math curricula in developing student math skills. He also is the principal investigator for What Works Clearinghouse reviews of elementary school math interventions.

Agodini has played key roles in other important education research, including as the director for an ED study that examined the effects of secondary vocational education on student’s academic and employment outcomes—the study was part of the National Assessment of Vocational Education—and as deputy director for a large-scale, congressionally mandated random assignment study of the student achievement effects of education technology. Agodini also is a technical advisory group member for ED’s National Evaluation of the GEAR-UP program and the National Center for Education Statistics Data on Vocational Education.

His other professional activities include serving as a referee for professional journals, including the Economics of Education Review, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Teachers College Record, and World Bank Economic Review. He has published articles in the Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, and Effective Education. He holds a Ph.D. in economics and education from Columbia University.