Julie A. Marsh

Dr. Julie Marsh is a Professor of Education Policy at the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California and Faculty Director of Policy Analysis for California Education. Marsh specializes in research on K-12 policy and governance, blending perspectives in education, sociology, and political science. Her work has focused on accountability and instructional policy, with particular attention to the process and politics of adoption and implementation, and the ways in which policies shape practice in urban settings. This has included studies of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and NCLB-waiver systems, school turnaround, teacher evaluation policy, literacy coaches, and math and science curricular reforms. One cross-cutting focus of this work relates to how teachers and administrators use data to inform their practice. A second major strand of her research examines educational governance and efforts to decentralize and democratize decision-making. These studies investigate school choice policy, participatory reforms calling for stakeholder engagement, efforts to provide greater local control over school finance, and “portfolio” reforms that diversify management of school operations.

Marsh is currently co-PI of a Spencer Foundation-funded study of governance reform in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Denver.  She also recently joined the leadership team and is co-PI of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH), funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Science. Marsh is a member of the Local Control Funding Formula Research Collaborative studying the implementation of California’s new finance and accountability policy. Recent publications include: “Challenges and choices: A multidistrict analysis of statewide mandated democratic engagement (American Educational Research Journal), “Evaluating Teachers in the Big Easy: How organizational context shapes policy responses in New Orleans” (Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis), and “Learning from early adopters in the new accountability era: Insights from California’s CORE waiver districts” (Educational Administration Quarterly). She is also author of Democratic Dilemmas: Joint Work, Education Politics, and Community (SUNY Press) and co-editor of School Districts and Instructional Renewal (Teachers College Press).  Marsh is currently co-editor of the AERA journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.