Jeffrey Max

Jeffrey Max focuses on evaluating and supporting education programs and policies.

Max has played a lead role on evaluations of programs designed to recruit, retain, and develop effective educators. He currently serves as the deputy project director for a U.S. Department of Education (ED) study to evaluate video-based coaching for teachers. He previously served as deputy project director of an ED study to understand whether disadvantaged students have equal access to effective teachers. That study also examined how teacher hiring and mobility are related to equitable access. His prior work includes an ED study of incentives to attract high-performing teachers to low-performing schools. Max also led development of a What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guide on teaching fractions in elementary and middle schools.

Max’s program improvement work focuses on supporting initiatives that prepare and develop effective educators. He leads the technical assistance provided to ED’s Supporting Effective Educator Development (SEED) grantees as part of the Teacher Quality Programs Technical Assistance Center. He also directs a project to assist ED’s SEED grantees in disseminating lessons learned from their grants through webinars, briefs, partnerships, and communities of practice.

Max is deputy director of Mathematica’s federal education work with a focus on program improvement projects. Max, who joined Mathematica in 2004, taught in the New Orleans Public School District through Teach For America. He has presented his work at conferences sponsored by the Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management, Association for Education Finance and Policy, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, and other organizations. He holds an M.P.A. from Columbia University.