Maithreyi Gopalan is an Associate Professor of Education Policy and Leadership (EPoL) and Quantitative Research Methods in Education at the University of Oregon College of Education

What questions, ideas, or values are at the heart of your research agenda? 

At its core, educational equity is at the heart of all three strands of research that I am engaged in. Whether it is using demographic techniques to examine and highlight key educational disparities in students’ learning opportunities or using experimental and quasi-experimental research designs to inform policies and programs that aim to mitigate those educational disparities, I care deeply about students’ civil rights in schools. I also value my interdisciplinary social science training that spans economics, public policy, and social psychology to inform the design and evaluation of evidence-based education and social policies in the US. 

What are some of the classes you most enjoy teaching in the EPoL program? 

This is my first term here at UO, and I am thoroughly enjoying teaching a professional writing class that I have redesigned to focus on providing policy-relevant, professional writing skills for our students. Next term, I will be teaching courses in the Education Data Science specialization that many EPoL students add to their methodological toolkit. Specifically, I am excited to teach a data visualization course that will fuse my interests in using causal inference with some “big data” techniques in the winter. 

What do you enjoy/appreciate/get excited about EPoL? 

I really appreciate the enthusiasm, curiosity, and appetite for learning (and teaching) rigorous policy analytical techniques that both students and faculty of the EPoL program bring to the table.