Biography

Iris is a Research Professor of Education Policy at the Graduate School of Education and Human Development, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.

Prior to joining George Washington, she was a Program Director at the National Science Foundation, Senior Social Scientist at the RAND Corporation, Principal Investigator for the Technology Policy Task Force of the U. S. House of Representatives Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, Assistant Director of the National Institute of Education, where she directed the Office of Planning and Program Development, and Deputy Director of a comprehensive study of compensatory education conducted for Congress by the National Institute of Education. She also held research positions with the Office of Economic Opportunity, the President’s Commission on Income Maintenance Programs, and the Human Resources Research Office.

Iris spent the first two years of college at Cedar Crest College and then transferred to the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her B.A. with a major in Sociology. She received her M.A. in Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and her Ph.D. In Research Psychology at The Johns Hopkins University. After graduating, she was a National Science Foundation Fellow at Johns Hopkins, where she conducted research on psycholinguistics and learning.

Iris’s publications address issues of school reform, the education of low-income students, school choice, integration and segregation, testing and accountability, international education, science education, welfare reform, and federal policy in financing education. Her research reports include a RAND report on federal policy options for improving the education of low-income students, a report on technology and human resources prepared for the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and reports on compensatory education used by Congress in formulating Title I legislation. These reports served as the basis for her testimony before the House Committee on Education and Labor and the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources.

Iris’s articles and commentaries appear in such publications as Science, Phi Delta Kappan, The Bridge, Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, Tech-nos, Prospects, The Education Digest, The Washington Post, The Hill, and Education Week. She is the editor of “Balancing Change and Tradition in Global Education Reform,” published by Rowman & Littlefield (2004, 2010) and “Choosing Charters: Better Schools or More Segregation?” (with Joshua L. Glazer), published by Teachers College Press (2018).