Shari Golan

Shari Golan, Ph.D., is president of SRI Education and a vice president of SRI International. Golan joined SRI in 1992 and has been a research center director since 2012. Golan has more than 25 years’ experience leading, conducting, and managing quantitative and qualitative research and evaluation projects in large school districts and other multi-site contexts for federal, state, foundation, and commercial clients.

Golan is expert in both process and outcome evaluation and technical assistance. Her expertise includes working with policymakers, funders, and program leaders to identify desired outcomes, strategies to achieve them, and ways to collect and use high-quality data to monitor progress. She has researched coordinated services for children, youth, and families to improve social, educational, and economic outcomes for vulnerable populations; family engagement; and early childhood education quality and outcomes for traditionally underserved children and youth. She also has disseminated findings in multiple formats for diverse audiences.

Golan’s skilled leadership and project management expertise have resulted in projects that deliver on time and on budget, but most importantly, have had demonstrable impact on school district decisions. For example, school leaders involved in a PreK–3 literacy initiative in the Twin Cities have used her evaluation findings to refine their work and try to better support their schools, teachers, and students (e.g., engage in more professional development focused on supporting dual language learners; fill gaps in their curricular needs; and place more focus on improving the quality of instruction, especially during independent work time). Similarly, her recent study of the use of kindergarten entry assessments generated important insights into the conditions and supports necessary for these assessments to be effective at improving student learning; these findings are helping the U.S. Department of Education to provide better technical assistance and states to develop and refine their own kindergarten entry assessment processes.