Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj

Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj is an associate professor in the department of education leadership, management, and policy and Director of the Center for College Readiness at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey. She spent the 2018-19 academic year as a James Fellow of the Sydney Social Sciences and Advanced Research Centre (SSSHARC) and Visiting Researcher in the School of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney.

Carolyn’s research uses qualitative methods to examine issues of educational access and equity for immigrant-origin youth and other historically under-served student populations. Her work in this area includes exploratory studies of immigrant and homeless families’ school choice behaviors; experimental research to develop and test interventions to reduce educational inequities; and studies of school leaders’ responses to xenophobia in schools and society and their sense of preparedness to address the consequences of immigration enforcement and racism for their school communities.

Carolyn’s work has been funded by the William T. Grant Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Smith-Richardson Foundation, the Heckscher Foundation for Children, the New York Community Trust, and the American Educational Research Association. It has appeared in a variety of academic journals and popular media outlets including the Sociology of Education Peabody Journal of Education, American Journal of Education, Educational Policy, The New York Times, The Huffington Post, EdWeek, and NPR. Carolyn is author of Unaccompanied Minors: Immigrant Youth, School Choice, and the Pursuit of Equity (Harvard Education Press, 2014), Matching Students to Opportunity: Expanding College Choice, Access and Quality (co-editor with Andrew Kelly and Jessica Howell, Harvard Education Press, 2016), Blueprint for School System Transformation: A Vision for Comprehensive Reform in Milwaukee and Beyond (co-editor with Frederick M. Hess, Rowman & Littlefield, 2013) and Educating the Whole Child for the Whole World: The Ross School Model and Education for the Global Era (co-editor with Marcelo M. Suárez-Orozco, New York University Press, 2010). She earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in international education from New York University. Prior to earning her doctorate, Carolyn worked on secondary school reform at the New York City Department of Education.