Areas of Expertise:
- Qualitative research methods
- School reform and educational policy, K-12 and higher education
- Professional development for teachers and school leaders
- Assessment of students’ writing, including rubric development and scoring
- Impact and implementation studies in the arts and humanities
- Studies of the impact of technology on teaching and learning
- White papers and research briefs
Kay has over 25 years of experience evaluating a wide range of initiatives in education and school reform, technology, the arts, and children’s media. She currently manages Rockman’s studies of federally-funded initiatives designed to improve teaching, leadership, and learning in high-need urban schools, in collaboration with New Visions for Public Schools, Hunter College, and the New York City Department of Education. Kay’s expertise is in qualitative research methods, and she has developed rubrics, case studies, and research briefs for a variety of clients and conducted numerous assessments of student writing, including those conducted as part of the multi-state evaluation of National History Day. Kay’s other work in the arts and humanities includes the summative study of the NSF-funded Music Instinct, and nationwide evaluations of two National Endowment for the Arts initiatives — Poetry Out Loud, a partnership between and NEA and the Poetry Foundation, and the Big Read. Rockman has a longstanding interest in the impact of technology on teaching and learning, in both K-12 and higher ed, and Kay has worked on projects ranging from studies of virtual learning in rural schools to an evaluation of the Wide Web for Women, an NSF-funded effort to increase women’s participation in computer science courses and careers.
Before joining Rockman, Kay worked in children’s media, as an evaluator for PBS and the Agency for Instructional Television in Bloomington, Indiana, where she authored a book on the development of a nationally distributed children’s television series. Kay has taught in public schools and at the university level. She did her doctoral work in English and Comparative Literature at Indiana University, Bloomington, and still spends much of her free time reading. She enjoys music, walks with the dog, and travel with her husband and children.
