Kaufman briefed journalists in December 2020: How COVID-19 Worsened Education Inequality.

Julia Kaufman is a senior policy researcher and Co-Director of the American Educator Panels at the RAND Corporation. She is leading multiple RAND projects focused on how states and school systems support high-quality teaching and student learning. She is currently leading RAND’s efforts to gather nationally representative survey data from teachers and school leaders on how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced their work and student learning, as well as several research studies to understand how states and school systems can support teachers to use standards-aligned curriculum materials in ways that support student learning. In two projects, she works closely with state department of education officials to provide data and analyses that can support their curriculum and professional development reform efforts.

Prior to coming to RAND, Kaufman’s research focused on the main factors that support teachers’ use of curriculum materials. She spent several years teaching English in multiple school contexts, and she has also been a GED instructor for adults.

Her research has been published in many RAND reports and academic journals including Educational Researcher, Educational Assessment, Elementary School Journal, Review of Educational Research, and American Education Research Journal, among others. Her analyses and commentaries have been published in The 74, US News and World Report, and Education Week.