Julie Marsh

Dr. Julie Marsh is a Professor of Education Policy at the Rossier School of Education and Sol Price School of Public Policy at the University of Southern California, Faculty Director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) at USC, and Co-Director of the Rossier Center on Education Policy, Equity and Governance (CEPEG). Marsh specializes in research on K-12 policy and governance, blending perspectives in education, sociology, and political science. Her work has focused on accountability and instructional policy, with particular attention to the process and politics of adoption and implementation, and the ways in which policies advance or inhibit equity and shape practice in urban settings. This has included studies of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act and NCLB-waiver systems, school turnaround, teacher evaluation policy, literacy coaches, and math and science curricular reforms. One cross-cutting focus of this work relates to how teachers and administrators use data to inform their practice. A second major strand of her research examines educational governance and efforts to decentralize and democratize decision-making. These studies investigate school choice policy, participatory reforms calling for stakeholder engagement, efforts to provide greater local control over school finance, and “portfolio” reforms that diversify management of school operations.

Marsh is director of qualitative research and co-PI of the National Center for Research on Education Access and Choice (REACH), funded by the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Science. This research in Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Michigan, and Oregon - along with a recent California study of school district governance - has focused on policy and organizational responses to COVID-19 and heightened awareness around racial injustice. Marsh was recently co-PI of a Spencer Foundation-funded study of governance reform in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Denver. She is a founding member of the Local Control Funding Formula Research Collaborative studying the implementation of California’s finance and accountability policy. Recent publications include: “Advancing or inhibiting equity: The role of racism in the implementation of a community engagement policy” (Leadership and Policy in Schools), "Social Construction Is Racial Construction: Examining the Target Populations in School-Choice Policies" (American Journal of Education), "The process and politics of educational governance change in New Orleans, Los Angeles, and Denver" (American Educational Research Journal), "Institutional logics in Los Angeles schools: Do multiple models disrupt the grammar of schooling? (American Journal of Education), "Civic engagement in education: Trends and tensions in California" (Education Finance and Policy), and “Evaluating Teachers in the Big Easy: How organizational context shapes policy responses in New Orleans” (Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis). She is also co-author of Challenging the “One Best System”? The Portfolio Management Model and Urban School Governance (Harvard Education Press), author of Democratic Dilemmas: Joint Work, Education Politics, and Community (SUNY Press), and co-editor of School Districts and Instructional Renewal (Teachers College Press).  Marsh recently completed a 4-year term as co-editor of the AERA journal Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.  

Prior to coming to USC in July 2010, Marsh was at the RAND Corporation where she last served as Senior Policy Researcher. She received a Ph.D. in Education Administration and Policy Analysis from Stanford University, a Master’s in Public Policy from the University of California at Berkeley, and B.A. in American Studies from Stanford University.