Kate Kennedy
Education research, policy, and practice
Welcome! I'm Kate Kennedy, Ph.D. I teach and conduct research as an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Cincinnati. I also do applied research at RAND as an Adjunct Researcher. I study K-12 school leadership, policy, and politics.
My research agenda is focused on school system leadership and governance, care, social-emotional well-being, and school choice. In all of my work, I examine issues related to equity and access.
Publications
Social-Emotional Well-Being for High School Students: Guidance for School and System Policy and Practice, was published as a RAND research report in 2024. This paper outlines research-based guidance for creating more caring high school support systems, structures, and policies.
eisenlohr-et-al-2023-a-tale-of-two-systems-choice-and-equity-in-the-district-of-columbia-s-charter-schools.pdfA Tale of Two Systems: Choice and Equity in the District of Columbia's Charter Schools, was published in the journal Educational Policy in 2023. This mixed-methods paper examines D.C.'s charter school system.
https://doi.org/10.1177/08959048231198816
Kennedy_Dissertation_FINAL_Fall 2022.pdfMy dissertation research, Care and Social-Emotional Well-Being: Organizational Conditions in Policy and Practice, examines how school districts organize around issues of care.
We developed this toolkit, along with a workbook and slide deck, to help district leaders, school leaders, teachers, and other instructional staff investigate and reflect on the extent to which coherence is present in their instructional systems, with the goal of improving that coherence.
Park Kennedy 2022 Weaving and Stacking.pdfThis article examines how educators describe continuous improvement and craft coherence for implementation, published in the Journal of Educational Change.
This practitioner-focused article examines caring district leadership practices and suggests four practical recommendations for superintendents and central office leaders. Read it on Phi Delta Kappan's web site.
Conceptions of Choice Equity & Rurality in Educational Research.pdfEquity and school choice in rural areas article in The Rural Educator, 2021
marsh_kennedy_2020.pdfSocial-Emotional learning indicators article in Teachers College Record, 2020
JSL 080819 SEL Equity and Caring Kate Kennedy.pdfA framework for equity and caring in the Journal of School Leadership, 2019
Kennedy Gallagher Fresno Case Study Oct 2019 PACE CORE.pdfCase study on Continuous Improvement, published by Policy Analysis for California Education, 2019
2021 CEPEG EducEquity Report_FINAL.pdfEducational Equity in Greater L.A., a research agenda, published by the Center on Education Policy, Equity, and Governance at the USC Rossier School of Education, 2021
Institutional Logics AJE 2020 Marsh et al.pdfInstitutional Logics in Los Angeles Schools article in the American Journal of Education, 2020