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Who We Are
The National High School Center was established in 2005 and serves as a central source of information and expertise on high school-related issues for all students, with a special focus on students with disabilities, students with limited proficiency in English, and students at risk of school failure. The National High School Center is housed at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington, DC, and is funded by a grant provided by the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Office of Special Education Programs.
Subcontractors include Learning Point Associates, MDRC, the National Center for Educational Accountability (NCEA), and WestEd.
About the American Institutes for Research
The American Institutes for Research is an independent, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research on important social issues and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of health, education, and workforce productivity.
The National High School Center will draw on AIR's experience operating national research and technical assistance centers, the knowledge its experts have gained by conducting large-scale evaluations of prominent high school improvement efforts, and the expertise of its School District Consulting Services team made up of nationally recognized former district superintendents.
Key Staff
Joseph R. Harris
Director, National High School Center
Dr. Joseph R. Harris, Principal Analyst for the American Institutes for Research, has an extensive background in science, mathematics, and technology (SMT) reform as both a practitioner and researcher/evaluator, and more than two decades of experience as an administrator and high school teacher in an urban public school environment.
For the past 12 years, Dr. Harris has served as the Project Manager for a major technical assistance contract, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in support of the Systemic Initiatives, a multi-year NSF effort designed to promote improved mathematics, science, and technology education in 100+ state, rural, and urban school districts and regional consortia. Dr. Harris also leads several K-12 projects, ranging from the Math Science Program Evaluation Advisory Board to a differentiated compensation project for Springfield (MA) public schools. His recent projects include the establishment of a nonprofit Superintendents Coalition, the multi-year development and implementation of the Automated Accountability System (AAS), and several evaluation studies. Dr. Harris has served as project leader on numerous consulting projects in areas such as program evaluation, student assessment, strategic planning, education policy, program equity, minority student achievement, and public/private partnerships. In that capacity, he has conducted numerous qualitative and quantitative evaluations and research studies that have focused on improved program operations and outcomes. He also has served as a senior research analyst in the design, administration, and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data collected through written surveys, focus groups, and telephone and in-person interviews for both national and local research studies.
Prior to joining The McKenzie Group and AIR, Dr. Harris served as an administrator and teacher in the District of Columbia Public Schools. For more than a decade, he coordinated the development, implementation, and operation of an automated instructional management system and played a major role in the development and implementation of the district's five-year computer literacy plan.
Dr. Harris holds a B.A. in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Florida, an M.A. in Secondary Education from the Catholic University of America, and a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Back to topCindy Cisneros
Director of Stakeholder Engagement,
Ms. Cindy Cisneros, Director of Stakeholder Engagement, facilitates cross-task collaboration to incorporate and leverage High School Center activities into an effective technical assistance delivery system. Ms. Cisneros has extensive experience in education policy development, technical assistance, strategic planning, and program administration. Prior to joining AIR, she served as a Senior Research and Development Associate in the Center for Leadership and Learning Communities at the Education Development Center. Ms. Cisneros' primary responsibilities were to provide technical assistance to urban school districts on administrative leadership practices and communicate what was being learned about leadership linked to improved student learning.
Ms. Cisneros previously served as an Education Program Specialist Supervisor for the systemic reform-based Goals 2000 program in the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE) at the U.S. Department of Education. In this program management position, she developed policy and related documents; administered several formula and discretionary grant programs to states and school districts; and, provided technical assistance to state and local education agencies as well as the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Ms. Cisneros was integral in the design and protocol development of the federal OESE regional service team system of technical assistance support to states. Her federal experience also includes work in the legislative branch of government for Congressman Leon Panetta as a Senior Legislative Aide handling education issues among others. Ms. Cisneros holds a M.A. in Public Administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and earned her B.A. in Political Economies of Industrialized Societies from the University of California, Berkeley
Lou Danielson
Director of Research, National High School Center
Louis Danielson, a national leader in the field of special education, has been involved in programs that improve results for students with disabilities for over three decades. He brings an unparalleled and unique depth of knowledge in both special education policy and research to his current position as Managing Director with the American Institutes for Research.
Dr. Danielson was awarded a doctorate of philosophy in education from Pennsylvania State University. His career spans several roles in education including secondary school science and mathematics teacher, school psychologist, and teaching at the university level. Until recently, Dr. Danielson held leadership roles in the U.S. Office for Special Education Programs and was responsible for the discretionary grants program, including technical assistance and dissemination, personnel preparation, technology, parent training priorities and state improvement grants. He has served in numerous research and policy roles and has been involved in major school reform activities.
A frequent contributor to professional journals, Dr. Danielson has published extensively in the literature and is a frequent speaker at national conferences, international conferences and events focusing on special education. His particular areas of interest include policy implementation and evaluation and scaling up of evidence based practices.
Jessica Heppen
Early Warning System Coordinator, National High School Center
Jessica Heppen holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from Rutgers University. She has over five years of experience in education research and policy and over ten years of experience in conducting research in the areas of education, health care, stereotypes of special populations, and student identity and self-esteem. Her research studies have been published in academic journals and presented at national conferences. Dr. Heppen is currently the
Early Warning System Coordinator
for the National High School Center. At AIR she has served as the deputy project coordinator for the What Works Clearinghouse mathematics intervention reviews and is also the task leader for the Comprehensive School Reform Quality (CSRQ) Center, having recently co-authored a review of the effectiveness of 22 widely used school reform models. Dr. Heppen contributes to these centers methodological experience in designing, conducting, and evaluating the rigor of research studies of education interventions. Dr. Heppen has also worked on the evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's National School District and Network Program, which aims to reform conventional high schools into better learning environments for secondary school students. Her responsibilities are focused on the analysis of equal opportunity and equity for all students in foundation-supported schools.
Prior to working at AIR, Dr. Heppen conducted evaluation studies of the impact of a set of educational technology interventions on student achievement in New York City. These longitudinal studies collectively included more than 13,000 students and 900 teachers of grades 6-12 in both urban and rural schools located in different regions of the United States. She also taught courses in social psychology and quantitative methods for four years at Rutgers University.
Back to topLouise Kennelly
Director of Research and Products, National High School Center
Ms. Louise Kennelly is the director of external relations services at AIR, where she
provides guidance and support regarding AIR's corporate communications activities with the
goal of bridging high-quality research with practice. Before joining AIR, Ms. Kennelly led
communications-related initiatives at New American Schools (NAS), providing public relations
and policy-related services to clients such as the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades
Reform and the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Ms. Kennelly has taught at the secondary school and college levels and has covered education issues as a daily news journalist and editor. She graduated from Yale University and holds a Master's from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
