Cecilia Speroni

Biography

Cecilia Speroni is a senior researcher and deputy director of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) research at Mathematica Policy Research. Her research focuses on teacher effectiveness, teacher performance pay, and interventions to increase college access and success for disadvantaged students. She has extensive experience designing and conducting large-scale impact evaluations in K-12 and higher education, including those relevant to STEM, using state and national administrative data sets.

Dr. Speroni is well-versed in analytical methods and data development. For the National Science Foundation (NSF), she is currently serving as the deputy director in the design of an evaluation framework and pilot data system that would enhance the foundations’ ability to monitor the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program and to conduct evaluations with increasing levels of rigor in the future.

Dr. Speroni recently evaluated the impact of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Summer Medical and Dental Education Program designed to increase minority representation in health-related STEM professions. She has also played a key role in the Institute of Education Sciences’ national randomized evaluation of performance-pay for teachers and principals. For this study, she measured the impact of performance bonuses on self-reported outcomes such as educators’ job satisfaction and time spent in school activities, and assessed the cost-effectiveness of performance-pay relative to other policy interventions.

Dr. Speroni is a certified reviewer for the Institute of Education Sciences’ What Works Clearinghouse to assess the quality of experimental, quasi-experimental, and regression discontinuity designs.