Stephen Lipscomb

Stephen Lipscomb has 10 years of experience designing and conducting studies to improve outcomes for children in public schools. Much of his expertise and interests relate to special education, research partnerships, and educator effectiveness.

Currently, Lipscomb serves in key roles on studies for the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences. He is co-principal investigator of the State and Local Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act project, which will survey states and nationally representative samples of school districts and schools to learn how they are implementing special education law. He is deputy director for the Evaluation of Preschool Special Education Practices, which will evaluate the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve outcomes for children in inclusive preschool classes. He also serves as the partnerships lead for the Regional Educational Laboratory Mid-Atlantic, which partners with school districts and state education agencies in the region to help build their capacity to use data and evidence to address education problems.

Previously, Lipscomb was deputy director for the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2012, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of youth and their parents to obtain updated information on the backgrounds of youth with disabilities and their experiences preparing for life after high school. He has also directed and served as a senior researcher on multiple projects for the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Team Pennsylvania Foundation to analyze the reliability and validity of Pennsylvania’s frameworks for evaluating teachers and school principals.

Before joining Mathematica in 2009, Lipscomb was a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a B.A. from The College of William & Mary.