American Institutes for Research

Sean P. “Jack” Buckley is an Institute Fellow and works with AIR on several projects in the areas of applied statistics, social sciences, and education policy. He is also President and Chief Scientist for Imbellus, a California-based assessment company.

Dr. Buckley has a deep background in applied statistics and education research. He served as AIR’s Senior Vice President for Research and Evaluation (Dec. 2016-Jan. 2019), where he oversaw projects across a range of subject areas including education, health, and the workforce both in the United States and internationally. Before joining AIR, he helped lead the redesign of the SAT at the College Board, where he served as senior vice president of research and was responsible for all research and psychometrics across their entire range of products and services. Prior to the College Board, he served as Commissioner of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). In that role he was responsible for the measurement of all aspects of U.S. education, including conducting the National Assessment of Educational Progress and coordinating U.S. participation in international assessments. While at NCES he also acted as a senior technical adviser to Department of Education leadership and co-chair of its Data Strategy team. He also served as Deputy Commissioner of NCES earlier in his career.

Dr. Buckley is known for his research on school choice—particularly charter schools—and on statistical methods for public policy and education. He has researched and taught applied statistics as a tenured associate professor at New York University and as an assistant professor of education research, measurement, and evaluation at Boston College. A former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer and nuclear reactor engineer, he holds doctoral and master’s degrees in Political Science from Stony Brook University (SUNY) and a bachelor’s degree in Government from Harvard University.