Access to high-quality education data empowers parents and educators to make the best decisions about a child’s education.
As director of policy implementation and best practice, Jane leads DQC’s work to understand the intersection of federal and state policy implementation and how it impacts states’ ability to build and maintain robust data systems that provide value to the people they serve. In her role, she identifies opportunities to improve policy based on DQC’s knowledge of best practices and levers for change, translates federal requirements into actionable information for states, and works directly with state leaders who are implementing innovative solutions to improve their states’ data infrastructure. By keeping an eye both to federal policymaking activity and lessons learned from state implementation of their data priorities, she is able to advocate for practical policy solutions that enable people to access and use high-quality data to improve opportunities and outcomes for individuals.
Prior to joining DQC, Jane worked in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education at the US Department of Education. While there, she worked on K–12 data initiatives, including the development of internal policies related to data governance, privacy, and quality; and external support for states on data requirements in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
Jane earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from Oregon State University and a master’s degree in public policy from American University. When she’s not at DQC, she can be found walking her dog, rooting for the Washington Nationals, or working on a cooking project.
Why do you do this work? I grew up in a family of educators. I saw firsthand the rewards that come with directly impacting the lives of children in the classroom, but also heard the dinner-table conversations about the things that got in the way of supporting students success, which were often institution-level issues that were outside of a teacher’s day to day control. As I got to the point where I was exploring career options, I wanted to be in education, and wanted to be in a role where I could have an impact on education policies and help shape it in a way that led to improved outcomes for students.
What is your favorite DQC resource? I love the student growth resource for parents. It shows that even a topic as complicated as growth data can be broken down in ways that are understandable to people who are not policy wonks, and it shows why these data are so important.
If you could have dinner with three people, who would they be? My family lives on the west coast and I don’t see them often enough, so I will always pick sitting around the dinner table in the house I grew up in with my mom, dad, and brother.
