Nathaniel Schwartz

Nathaniel Schwartz is a director of applied research and professor of practice at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University. In 2020, he co-founded the EdResearch for Recovery initiative, which collects requests for pandemic-related research guidance from education leaders and identifies teams of researchers across the country to build out quick-response evidence synthesis. He also serves as the research chair for the Research Partnership on Professional Learning (RPPL), a collaboration between the Annenberg Institute and a group of professional learning providers that aims to produce more actionable research on teacher professional learning. Schwartz previously held a position as the chief research and strategy officer for the Tennessee Department of Education. In this role, he led the department’s research and strategic planning teams, contributing to the launch of Tennessee Succeeds, a strategic plan and vision aimed at increasing postsecondary and career readiness for Tennessee's one million students, and to the creation of the Tennessee Education Research Alliance, an innovative state-level research partnership with Vanderbilt University. He started his career as a high school physics teacher.

Dr. Schwartz earned his PhD from the University of Michigan's School of Education, his master of public policy from the University of Michigan's Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and his bachelor of arts from Harvard College. Previously, he taught high school science through Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta and served as a founding teacher for the Noble Network of Charter Schools in Chicago.