Jessalynn James is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in School Reform at the Annenberg Institute. Her research uses a mix of causal and descriptive techniques to evaluate policies that enhance teaching quality (e.g., through recruitment, training, and retention), as well as the implications of these policies for ameliorating academic disparities. Most recently, she was an IES-VEST Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Virginia, where she was engaged in a research partnership between the University of Virginia and the District of Columbia Public Schools focusing on teacher policy in the district. Before that, she worked at health policy research foundation and later at an educational assessment and research organization in New York City.

Jessalynn has a Ph.D. in education policy from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia and previously received a Master’s degree in public affairs, with a concentration in policy analysis and evaluation, from the Baruch School of Public Affairs at the City University of New York