American Institutes for Research

Stephanie Jackson is a managing researcher at AIR and directs policy, research, and evaluation studies for federal, state, and other private policymakers. Dr. Jackson has more than 30 years of experience in a variety of educational environments, including general and special education settings, magnet schools, charter schools, and higher education. She has been recognized for her educational leadership in schools and her practical and realistic perspective to foster the learning of all students, including students with disabilities.

Since 2002, Dr. Jackson has served as co-project director of the Task Ordering Contract for the U.S. Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). In this role she has assisted OSEP with communicating evidence-based research to practice to support students with disabilities in schools across the country. Dr. Jackson also directed the New York Special Education and English Language Learners Audits project, which examined the alignment of curriculum, instruction, assessment, professional development, and staffing through multiple lenses of data collection and analysis. In 2010, Dr. Jackson became the project director for the National Center on Response to Intervention (NCRTI), a federally-funded technical assistance center, which helps states build their capacity to support districts in implementing RTI.

Prior to coming to AIR, Dr. Jackson worked as a general education and special education teacher, a special education administrator, an elementary school principal, and associate director of a research institute in a large, urban university.