Sakiko Ikoma

Senior Researcher

Sakiko Ikoma, Ph.D. is a senior researcher at AIR. Her primary responsibilities include statistical and technical assistance for the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). She has worked closely with NCES to develop and review statistical analysis reports for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and led research projects focused on analyzing large-scale assessment data, such as NAEP, the High School Longitudinal Study, the Program for International Student Assessment, the National Teacher and Principal Survey, and the Teaching and Learning International Survey. 

Dr. Ikoma’s area of expertise is the sociology of education, especially regarding professionalization of teaching, school climate, professional learning communities, teacher quality, academic resilience, homework, and credentialism and meritocracy. Using NAEP, she has led studies that analyzed characteristics of students who perform below NAEP Basic. Regarding research related to teachers, she authored a chapter in the International Handbook of Teacher Quality and Policy that examined sociological theories of the teaching profession and historical contexts of professionalization of teaching in the U.S. For the University of North Carolina Educator Quality Research Initiative, she contributed to the development and implementation of self-administered questionnaires and focus groups to assess the needs of beginning teachers. She also conducted data analyses and co-authored a federal report, Certification status and experience of U.S. public school teachers: Variations across student subgroups (NCES 2017-056). In addition, she has actively engaged in multiple NCES center wide activities to help NCES identify critical issues on K-12 schools and teachers and enhance potential collaboration across different NCES surveys. 

Dr. Ikoma is a certified Project Management Professional. Prior to her graduate study in the U.S., she has taught mathematics, science, and English to middle and high school students for eight years in Tokyo, Japan. 

Sakiko Ikoma

Dual-title Ph.D., Educational Theory & Policy and Comparative & International Education, The Pennsylvania State University; M.A., Sociology & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University; B.S., Physics, Aoyama Gakuin University

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