Margaret Brackett
Margaret Brackett has more than 20 years of experience gathering, analyzing, and synthesizing data from a variety of sources and presenting these analyses to non-technical audiences. She has worked in public organizations at the federal, state, and local levels.
Margaret began her education policy career as one of the original staff members of The Institute for Higher Education Policy. As the institute’s primary policy analyst, Margaret analyzed U.S. Department of Education datasets regarding college access, student loan indebtedness, and institutional accreditation. She authored numerous reports on the impact of federal and state student aid programs at graduate, undergraduate, and community college institutions. Margaret later staffed the state Council for School Performance, the creators of the original school and school system “report cards” in Georgia. Developing these report cards required the synthesis of multiple data points into an easy-to-understand school-level report card.
More recently, Margaret spent ten years as an internal analyst at a large, urban school district, designing and managing multiple research and evaluation projects. In addition to using qualitative methods such as surveys and focus groups, Margaret has utilized quantitative analyses of educational outcome data including pre- and post- measures, comparison groups, and statistical methods to determine causal relationships.
Margaret was a fellow with the Harvard Strategic Data Project, and earned a Master’s of Public Policy with a concentration in Quantitative Analysis and Education Policy from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Public Policy Studies from Duke University.
