American Institutes for Research

Dr. Kathryn Drummond is a principal researcher at AIR and director of the language acquisition/learning and literacy practice area, where she works on a variety of research and evaluation studies related to literacy achievement and professional development. Currently, she serves on the leadership team for an evaluation of a K-3 literacy intervention that involves tiered-instruction and professional development in three large urban districts. She also manages a design study project related to professional development and coaching in the Head Start context. Dr. Drummond recently authored two reports that synthesized expert analysis of the content of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). She also directed a project that used an online tool to validate students' opportunity to learn standards and helped teachers understand the intention of standards, including the CCSS.

Previously, Dr. Drummond worked as the director for an Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-supported evaluation of Thinking Reader, a software program for struggling middle school readers. She coordinated content dissemination for the National Center on Response to Intervention. Dr. Drummond served as coordinator for the Beginning Reading review of IES’s What Works Clearinghouse, which evaluates the empirical evidence supporting literacy interventions. She also worked on the IES-supported Enhanced Reading Opportunities (ERO) study, a randomized field trial that evaluated two supplemental literacy programs designed for struggling ninth grade readers.

Dr. Drummond taught special education for three years in Louisiana public schools and worked in a clinical setting for two years in Los Angeles, conducting reading and writing interventions for students with disabilities.