Lauren Sartain

Lauren Sartain is an Affiliated Researcher at the UChicago Consortium. Her main research interests are in understanding policies and practices that urban schools can implement in order to improve the outcomes and lives of the students and adults in the public school system. To answer these kinds of policy-relevant research questions, she implements a variety of econometric and quasi-experimental research techniques with large-scale administrative data in order to hone in on the effects of various policies. Lauren has also worked at various research institutes like the Chapin Hall Center for Children and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. She has published and presented on a wide range of topics, including teacher quality, school choice and school quality, and discipline reform. While Lauren believes it is critical to apply rigorous methods to answer important policy questions, strong research only goes so far. Being able to take key findings and communicate them in a way that is meaningful for families, practitioners, and policymakers is also essential and at the heart of the research-practice partnership model. Lauren's research at the UChicago Consortium gives her a unique vantage point from which to study real-world policy problems in an interdisciplinary way. When she's not being a researcher, Lauren spends a lot of time raising her kiddos, Josephine and Theodore, and their yellow dog, Pearl.

Featured Publications

All Publications

Title Type Date Sort descending
Evaluation of the Excellence in Teaching Pilot - Year One Evaluation of the Excellence in Teaching Pilot - Year One Working Paper Aug 2009
Reports on High School Reform in Chicago Reports on High School Reform in Chicago Report Aug 2009
Rethinking Teacher Evaluation: Findings from the First Year of the Excellence in Teaching Project in Chicago Public Schools Rethinking Teacher Evaluation

Findings from the First Year of the Excellence in Teaching Project in Chicago Public Schools

Brief Jun 2010
A Study of Chicago New Teacher Center Induction Coaching in Chicago Public Schools:  2009-2010 A Study of Chicago New Teacher Center Induction Coaching in Chicago Public Schools

2009-2010

Working Paper Nov 2010
Rethinking Teacher Evaluation in Chicago: Lessons Learned from Classroom Observations, Principal-Teacher Conferences, and District Implementation Rethinking Teacher Evaluation in Chicago

Lessons Learned from Classroom Observations, Principal-Teacher Conferences, and District Implementation

Report Nov 2011
Does Better Observation Make Better Teachers?

New Evidence from a Teacher Evaluation Pilot in Chicago

Article Nov 2014
Discipline Practices in Chicago Schools: Trends in the Use of Suspensions and Arrests Discipline Practices in Chicago Schools

Trends in the Use of Suspensions and Arrests

Report Mar 2015
Suspending Chicago's Students: Differences in Discipline Practices Across Schools Suspending Chicago's Students

Differences in Discipline Practices Across Schools

Report Sep 2015
Does Teacher Evaluation Improve School Performance? Experimental Evidence from Chicago's Excellence in Teaching Project Does Teacher Evaluation Improve School Performance? Experimental Evidence from Chicago's Excellence in Teaching Project Article Oct 2015
Teachers' Labor Market Responses to Performance Evaluation Reform

Experimental Evidence from Chicago Public Schools

Article Aug 2016
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