Barbara Harris

Barbara Harris specializes in designing and conducting studies on the effectiveness of education programs and policies.

Harris’s education research includes serving as director for an evaluation of the Math Corps, a summer math camp provided by university math professors in inner-cities. She was the principal investigator for a study of early math education in family engagement programs for low-income families with young children, the Early Math in Family Engagement Evaluation. She also designed and directed an impact evaluation of the Early Learning Math Initiative for the Heising-Simons Foundation. The study examined the effects of the initiative on prekindergarten and third-grade student math achievement. Other roles include deputy director for a large-scale impact study of four elementary math curricula.

Harris’s methods expertise includes serving as deputy methodologist for the What Works Clearinghouse primary and secondary math topic areas and conducting independent reviews for the Regional Educational Laboratories. 

Harris joined Mathematica in 2003. She is a reviewer for the Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness and has served as a proposal reviewer for the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics annual conference since 2008. She has an M.A. in economics from San Diego State University.