Kathryn McDermott

Kathryn McDermott is assistant professor of education and public policy, and associate director of the Center for Education Policy, at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  She holds a joint appointment in the School of Education and the Center for Public Policy and Administration.  Her main research interest is on the balance of power among local, state, and federal education authorities, and the effect of that balance on educational quality and equity.  She is the author of Controlling Public Education: Localism Versus Equity (University Press of Kansas, 1999), as well as numerous academic journal articles, and is currently working on a book about educational accountability in the states.  Kathryn received her doctorate in political science from Yale University in 1997.