Research Summary
I research district change, principal and teacher support and improvement, and the relationship between district/school organizational decisions and outcomes. My current work leverages survey, administrative, and interview data to understand how school districts support and develop principals. My methodological interests include survey research and mixed methods.
Education
- PhD, Educational Leadership & Policy, Vanderbilt University
- MA, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Colorado Denver
Biography
Laura Rogers (she/her) is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Utah. She uses quantitative and qualitative methods to study how school district conditions and policies influence the work of principals and teachers. Dr. Rogers’ scholarly work has been published in major outlets such as Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Educational Researcher. She was also a part of the evaluation team studying the Wallace Foundation's Principal Supervisor Initiative.
Many of Dr. Rogers’ current projects focus on school and district staffing and retention. With colleagues at Vanderbilt, she is part of a Wallace Foundation-sponsored examination of districts’ take-up and implementation of principal pipelines. She is also the primary investigator on two funded projects that examine how Utah educators' wellbeing influences their retention and effectiveness.
Dr. Rogers received her Ph.D. in K-12 education policy from Vanderbilt University. She holds an MA in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado Denver and a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Previously, she taught early elementary school in Colorado and EFL in rural Japan.
Professional Organizations
Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP)
American Educational Research Association (AERA)
Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management (APPAM)
University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)
Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness (SREE)