Jenny Nagaoka

Jenny Nagaoka is the deputy director of the University of Chicago Consortium on School Research, where she has conducted research for the past 15 years. Nagaoka's research interests focus on policy and practice in urban education reform, particularly developing school environments and instructional practices that promote college readiness and success. She has co-authored numerous journal articles and reports, including studies of college readiness, noncognitive factors, the transition from high school to postsecondary education, authentic intellectual instruction, and Chicago's initiative to end social promotion.

Nagaoka’s current work at the Consortium includes directing a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop frameworks and tools for the development of early warning and college readiness indicator systems, a study of the role of teachers and classroom context in developing students’ academic skills, academic mindsets, perseverance, and learning strategies, and a study of rigorous instruction in Chicago high school classrooms.

Nagaoka received her BA from Macalester College and her Master of public policy degree from the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago.