Vikash Reddy, Ph.D.

Vikash Reddy has over 15 years of experience in higher education research, with particular expertise in outcomes-based funding policies and developmental education reforms.

Vikash came to understand the importance of high-quality educational opportunities when his parents, both educators at Weber State University, mortgaged their house in order to send his sisters and him to the best schools they could find. He began his own career in education as a third grade teacher in the East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. Frustrated by the haphazard and often inappropriate ways in which research was used by policymakers, Vikash decided to pursue a doctoral degree in education and has worked to promote evidence-based education policymaking in support of students who have traditionally been denied the types of opportunity he had enjoyed himself.

Prior to joining the Campaign, Vikash was a Policy Analyst at the California Policy Lab at UC Berkeley, where he worked with California government agencies including the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and the California Student Aid Commission to analyze administrative data and evaluate pilot programs. Vikash previously worked at the Community College Research Center and the Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he co-authored books and articles on performance funding in higher education, researched reforms in developmental education, and helped to create and evaluate multiple measures placement systems at the State University of New York.

Vikash earned his PhD in Education Policy from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he was awarded a Department of Education Policy & Social Analysis Dissertation Fellowship for his dissertation, From the Schoolhouse to the Statehouse: The Role of Teach for America and Its Alumni in Education Policy. He holds a Masters Degree in Elementary Teaching from Pace University and a Bachelors Degree in Government from Dartmouth College.

Alma Mater(s): Teachers College, Columbia University (PhD); Pace University (MS); Dartmouth College (BA)

Your role in one sentence: I support the brilliant staff at the Campaign by providing research and analysis that helps inform the organization’s advocacy efforts.

When I am not at work helping students get to and succeed in college I am…running, hiking, swimming, dancing, reading, playing with my nieces and nephews, or napping.

If not higher education then what cause? Pretty much any cause associated with the basic needs articulated by Abraham Maslow.

2022 Emerging Scholar

Diverse: Issues in Education

Books

Performance Funding in Higher Education (with Kevin Dougherty, Sosanya Jones, Hana Lahr, Rebecca Natow, and Lara Pheatt)

Chapters:

Branch out: Using Tree Diagrams to Select and Develop Research Questions. In A Practical Guide to Teaching Research Methods in Education: Lesson Plans and Advice from Faculty
College Placement Strategies: Evolving Considerations and Practices. In Preparing Students for College and Careers: Theory, Measurement, and Educational Practice (with Elisabeth Barnett)

Op-Eds

Setting up a needless barrier to a Cal State education. The Los Angeles Times

Teachers Alone Can’t Create Excellent Schools. in The Washington Post – The Answer Sheet