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Alumni

Tamara W. Linkow

Principle Associate, Division of Social and Economic Policy

Tamara Linkow has 11 years of experience conducting quantitative and qualitative educational research and evaluation. She has played leadership roles on studies using both experimental and quasi-experimental methods. She has worked for federal agencies, state governments and foundations. Her areas of concentration include college access, school choice, high school reform, accountability and the achievement gap. Her work includes conducting impact and implementation studies, survey development and analysis and collection of administrative data.

Linkow currently leads three projects. She is project director of the Department of Education’s (ED) Effectiveness of Promising Strategies in Federal College Access Programs. This study investigates the impacts of college advising strategies in promoting college enrollment and persistence. Linkow serves as project director for ED’s Evaluating the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). This study will provide evidence about the school voucher program, in particular about how it works and the quality of schooling experiences. Linkow also serves as project director for the Boston Foundation’s Impact Evaluations of Success Boston Coaching, which include two comprehensive studies of college transition coaching in Boston for five cohorts of students.

Linkow served as deputy project director of the Evaluation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA’s) Summer of Innovation, a science, technology, engineering and math summer learning program targeted at middle school students. She served as data collection lead for ED’s Study of Promising Features of Teacher Preparation Programs. She was deputy project director of ED’s Study of Strategies for Improving the Quality of Local Grantee Program Evaluations. The project’s goal was to improve grantee evaluation quality and the role of grantee evaluations in policymaking.

Educational background

Ph.D., Teachers College, Columbia University

M.A., Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences, Columbia University

B.A., Sociology, Skidmore College

Recent publications

  • Jacob, B., & Linkow, T. W. (2011). Educational expectations and attainment. In R. J. Murnane & G. J. Duncan (Eds.), Whither Opportunity? Rising Inequality, Schools, and Children’s Life Chances. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
  • Linkow, T. W. (2011). Disconnected reform: The proliferation of school choice options in the U.S. Journal of School Choice 5(4): 414-443.
  • Martinez, A., Linkow, T., Velez, M., & DeLisi, J. (2014). Evaluation Study of Summer of Innovation Stand-Alone Program Model FY 2013: Outcomes Report. Report prepared for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA.
  • Linkow, T., Gamse, B., Unlu, F., Bumgarner, E., Didriksen, H., Furey, J., Meneses, M., Sami, M., and A. Nichols. (2017). The Power of Coaching: Interim Outcomes Report. Prepared for the Boston Foundation. Abt Associates, Cambridge, MA.
  • Martinez, A., Linkow, T., Miller, H., & Parsad, A. (2018). Study of Enhanced College Advising in Upward Bound: Impacts on Steps Toward College. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.