Background
Douglas Ready is Professor of Education and Public Policy, and Director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (https://www.tc.columbia.edu/cpre/), at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research explores the links between education policy, social policy, and educational equity, with a particular focus on how contemporary policies and programs moderate or exacerbate socio-demographic disparities in student outcomes. This work has received over $13 million in support from government and private philanthropic organizations, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, Spencer Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, Jacobs Foundation, Rauch Foundation, Fundação Lemann, Itaú Social, and Instituto Peninsula. Representative publications have appeared in Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Policy, Sociology of Education, Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, American Journal of Education, Teachers College Record, Research in Higher Education, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Early Education and Development, as well as in books and edited volumes published by the Brookings Institution, Teachers College Press, and the American Educational Research Association. He has served on the Editorial Boards of Sociology of Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and American Educational Research Journal.
Ongoing and Recent Projects
Evaluation of the Robin Hood Learning + Technology Fund's Content-Rich Blended Learning Approach in New York City. Robin Hood Foundation, Overdeck Family Foundation, and the Siegel Family Endowment. Principal Investigator.
Implementation Study of Brazil’s National Common Curricular Base (Base Nacional Comum Curricular). Fundação Lemann and Itaú Social. Principal Investigator.
Teach for America Teachers in Duval County Public Schools: An Analysis of Retention and Performance. U.S. Department of Education and Duval County (Florida) Public Schools, Race to the Top Funds. Principal Investigator.
Do Teacher Incentives Improve Teacher Retention and Student Outcomes in Breakthrough Charter Schools? U.S. Department of Education, Teacher Incentive Fund. Principal Investigator.
Reimagining the Classroom: Teach to One Math in Elizabeth Public Schools. U.S. Department of Education, Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). Principal Investigator.
Racial and Socio-Economic Inequality in Early Cognitive Development: The Role of Children’s Health and School Absences. National Science Foundation and the National Center for Education Statistics via the AERA Grants Program. Principal Investigator.
The Development of Executive Function among Sociodemographically Diverse Children: The Role of Teacher-Child Relationships. Spencer Foundation. Co-Principal Investigator.
Developing an Accountability Model Aligned With Common Core. U.S. Department of Education, Charter School Program, National Leadership Grant. Co-Principal Investigator.
Reid, J., & Ready, D.D. (in press). Heterogeneity in the development of executive function: Evidence from nationally representative data. Early Education and Development.
Lyon, M., Bretas, S., & Ready D.D. (in press). Design philanthropy: Challenges and opportunties in the evolution of philanthropic giving. Educational Policy.
Daruwala, I., Bretas, S., & Ready, D.D. (2021). When logics collide: Implementing technology-enabled personalization in the age of accountability. Educational Researcher, 50(3), 157-164.
Dumont, H., & Ready, D.D. (2020). Do schools reduce or exacerbate inequality? How the associations between student achievement and achievement growth influence our understanding of the role of schooling. American Educational Research Journal, 57(2), 728-774.
Warner, M.T., & Ready, D.D. (2019). Equity, access, and mathematics coursetaking within purposefully created small high schools. Educational Policy, 33(5), 761-804.
Ready, D.D., & Reid, J.L. (2019). Children's executive function development and school socioeconomic and racial/ethnic composition. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 457-471.
Chu, E.M., & Ready, D.D. (2018). Exclusion and urban public high schools: Short- and long-term consequences of school suspensions. American Journal of Education, 124(4), 479-509.
Ready, D.D., Daruwala, I., & Bretas, S. (2018). Which piper to pay? When technology-enabled personalization and accountability regimes collide. Teachers College Record, Commentary.
Wells, A.S., Fox, L., Cordova-Cobo, D., & Ready, D.D. (2018). Addressing the patterns of resegregation in urban and suburban contexts: How to stabilize integrated schools and communities amid metro migrations. In C. Herbert, J. Spader, J. Molinsky, & S. Rieger (Eds.), A shared future: Fostering communities of inclusion in an era of inequality (398-420). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University, Joint Center for Housing Studies.
Ready, D.D., & Chu, E.M. (2015). Socio-demographic inequality in early literacy development: The role of teacher perceptual accuracy. Early Education and Development, 26, 970-987.
Ready, D.D. (2014). Teach for America Teachers in Duval County Public Schools: An Analysis of Retention and Performance. upload/ddr2111/FINAL_TFA_DUVAL.pdf
Ready, D.D. (2013). Associations between student achievement and student learning: Implications for value-added school accountability models. Educational Policy, 27(2), 92-120.
Reid, J.L., & Ready, D.D. (2013). High-quality preschool: The socioeconomic composition of preschool classrooms and children’s learning. Early Education and Development, 24(8), 1082-1011.
Wells, A.S., Ready, D.D., Duran, J., Grzesikowski, C., Hill, K., Roda, A., Warner, M, & White, T. (2012). Still separate, still unequal, but not always so “suburban”: The changing nature of suburban school districts in the New York metropolitan area. In W.F. Tate (Ed.), Research on schools, neighborhoods, and communities (125-149). Washington, DC: American Educational Research Association.
Ready, D.D., & Silander, M.R. (2011). School racial composition and young children’s cognitive development: Isolating family, neighborhood, and school influences. In E. Frankenberg & E. DeBray (Eds), Integrating schools in a changing society: New policies and legal options for a multiracial generation (91-113). Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
Ready, D.D., & Wright, D.L. (2011). Accuracy and inaccuracy in teachers’ perceptions of young children’s cognitive abilities: The role of child background and classroom context. American Educational Research Journal, 48(2), 335-360.
Kugelmass, H., & Ready, D.D. (2011). Racial/ethnic disparities in collegiate cognitive gains: A multilevel analysis of institutional influences on learning and its equitable distribution. Research in Higher Education, 52(4), 323-348.
Ferguson, J.L., & Ready, D.D. (2011, co-authored). Expanding notions of social reproduction: Grandparents’ educational attainment and grandchildren’s cognitive skills. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 26, 216-226.
Ready, D.D. (2010). Socio-economic disadvantage, school attendance, and early cognitive development: The differential effects of school exposure. Sociology of Education, 83(4), 271-286.
Lee, V.E., & Ready, D.D. (2009). The U.S. high school curriculum: Three phases of research and reform. The Future of Children, 19(1), 135-156.
Ready, D.D. (2008). Class-size reduction: Policy, politics, and implications for equity. Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Ready, D.D. & Lee, V.E. (2008). Choice, equity, and the schools-within-schools reform. Teachers College Record, 110(9), 1930-1958.
Ready, D.D. & Lee, V.E. (2007). Optimal context size in elementary schools: Disentangling the effects of class size and school size. In T. Loveless & F.M. Hess (Eds.), Brookings Papers on Education Policy, 2006/2007 (99-135). Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution.
Lee, V.E. & Ready, D.D. (2007, co-authored). Schools-within-schools: Possibilities and pitfalls of high school reform. New York: Teachers College Press.
Burkam, D.T., LoGerfo, L.F., Ready, D.D., & Lee, V.E. (2007). The differential effects of repeating kindergarten. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 12(2), 103-136.
Lee, V.E., Burkam, D.T., Ready, D.D., Honigman, J.J., & Meisels, S.J. (2006). Full-day vs. half-day kindergarten: In which program do children learn more? American Journal of Education, 11(2), 163-208.
Ready, D.D., LoGerfo, L.F., Lee, V.E., & Burkam, D.T. (2005). Explaining girls’ advantage in kindergarten literacy learning: Do classroom behaviors make a difference? Elementary School Journal, 106(1), 21-38.
Lee, V.E., & Ready, D.D. (2005). The schools-within-schools reform: A viable solution to the problems of large high schools? In T. Urdan and F. Pajares (Eds.), Educating Adolescents: Challenges and Strategies (179-206). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publications.
Ready, D.D., Lee, V.E., & Welner, K. (2004). Educational equity and high school organization. Teachers College Record, 106(10), 1989-2014.
Burkam, D.T., Ready, D.D., Lee, V.E., & LoGerfo, L. (2004). Social-class differences in summer learning between kindergarten and first grade: Model specification and estimation. Sociology of Education, 77(1), 1-31.
Nettles, M.T., Millett, C.M., & Ready, D.D. (2003). High schools on the front line: Attacking the African American/White achievement gap on college admissions tests. In D. Ravitch (Ed.), Brookings Papers on Education Policy, 2003 (215-252). Washington, D.C: Brookings Institution.
Lee, V.E., Ready, D.D., & Johnson, D.J. (2001). The difficulty of finding rare samples to study: The case of high schools divided into schools-within-schools. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(4), 365-379.