Jessica Edwards is a motivated member of the education policy community, dedicated to ensuring the highest quality education for all of our nation’s students. Jessica currently serves as a Research Associate for Massachusetts 2020, where she is able to document current trends in education policy, establish “best practice” models for Expanded Learning Time implementation, publish reports for both the Massachusetts and national organizations and implement data collection tools at the school, district and state levels. Jessica also has an avid interest in international comparative education research, which has been essential to developing Mass 2020’s understanding of time-usage in schools around the world.
Prior to joining Mass 2020, Jessica worked to improve instruction in K-12 schools in the Los Angeles area. As a classroom educator in Pasadena and East Los Angeles’ bilingual schools, she witnessed first-hand the grave challenges facing impoverished students, which have ultimately lead to a staggering achievement gap amongst our nation’s youth. Jessica also collaborated with the Los Angeles Unified School District to provide professional development opportunities to teachers and administrators with the ultimate goal of improving instructional practices within an urban school setting. Her knowledge of instructional practices was honed through work on several grants provided by the state of California and the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education, which sought to collect data on thousands of schools, teachers, and students throughout the state.
Jessica holds a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Southern California and earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Biomechanics from the University of Florida. She currently lives in Braintree, MA but travels to her hometown of Columbus, OH whenever possible.
