Beth Tarasawa, PhD
Executive VP of Research
Beth Tarasawa is relentlessly committed to using data-driven insights to transform education and eliminate structural barriers to achieve equitable outcomes for all students. Dr. Tarasawa leads NWEA’s Research teams, the Center for School & Student Progress and Collaborative for Student Growth, that are devoted to advancements in assessment and growth measurement, answering fundamental questions to inform policy and practice, and drive educational innovation. She also plays a key role in building collaborations with universities, foundations, and school districts to produce rigorous and accessible educational policy research.
Dr. Tarasawa’s research focuses on issues related to educational equity, particularly those concerning social class, race, and linguistic diversity. Her work has been featured by PBS’s NewsHour, Children’s Institute, The Hechinger Report, The Atlantic, Education Week, and New America. She has received significant grants and research contracts from funders including the National Science Foundation, American Sociological Association, Walton Family Foundation, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and Spencer Foundation. She also teaches in the College of Education at Portland State University.
Prior to joining NWEA, she was a faculty member at Washington State University and St. Norbert College. She earned her PhD and MA in the sociology of education with a concentration in education policy at Emory University.She is deeply committed to community engagement and believes we will only dismantle long-standing educational opportunity gaps through the collective action of social justice-minded leaders and by intentionally empowering communities. Her board of directors and service history includes work with Open School East, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization, Friends of the Children, Resolutions Northwest, Portland Housing Center, and Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon.
Publications by Beth Tarasawa
Equitable learning recovery must be grounded in solid research
The COVID-19 pandemic, coupled with political and social unrest, has deeply disrupted the lives and learning experiences of most students. It has created an urgent need to address long-standing opportunity gaps and has highlighted the importance of providing resources that support student achievement, social-emotional learning, and physical and mental well-being. This urgency for action to address the impacts is valid, but it has also created a noisy environment of potential options of what might be best for students. It’s critical, now more than ever, for decisions to be grounded in solid research.
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity
Achievement growth in K-8 Catholic schools using NWEA data
Using a national sample of kindergarten to eighth grade students from Catholic and public schools who took MAP Growth assessments, we examine achievement growth over time between sectors.
Topics: Early learning, Middle school
Family perceptions of participating in a structured summer kindergarten transition program
Researchers interviewed parents whose children participated in a three-week structured kindergarten transition program designed to promote parental involvement in school, reduce students’ chronic absenteeism, and increase children’s readiness for kindergarten. Interviewees expressed that participating in the program yielded benefits for themselves and their children, and proposed various ways that adjusting the program could better meet the needs of all stakeholders. Parent suggestions were synthesized into multiple implications for practice and substantiated by current relevant literature.
Topics: Early learning, Empowering educators
In this webinar offered in partnership by the Alliance for Excellent Education, NWEA, the National Urban League, and Unidos US, learn about new NWEA research on academic trends of students during the past school year compared to a more typical school year, what these findings suggest about widening education inequality, recommendations for states and districts on how to use recent federal aid to transform education for historically underserved students, and the perspective a a district leader on what their district is doing to support students as they return to school.
Topics: COVID-19 & schools, Equity
Understanding the initial educational impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color
This report examines the academic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students, with the goal of documenting achievement trends to provide leaders and policymakers with evidence to guide action to address educational inequities for BIPOC students.
Topics: Equity, COVID-19 & schools
Preparing early learners: Considerations for supporting the kindergarten class of 2021
Among the many ways in which schools are being transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the change in kindergarten enrollment is likely to have important consequences in classrooms across the nation. Because the academic and nonacademic skills students develop in their preschool and early elementary school years are foundational to important longer-term outcomes, understanding these changes and finding ways to effectively support our youngest students’ learning is critical for educators and leaders. Drawing on recent research, we offer four timely considerations for district, school, and classroom leaders.
Topics: Equity, COVID-19 & schools, Early learning
How did students fare relative to the COVID-19 learning loss projections?
In this SAGE perspectives blog, Angela Johnson shares some key findings from NWEA research exploring how school shutdowns impacted student achievement at the start of the 2020-21 school year.
Topics: Equity, COVID-19 & schools
