IES Staff

Nathan Jones

Commissioner, NCSER
NCSER
(202) 708-5954

About

Dr. Nathan Jones is the commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER). In his research, Dr. Jones focuses on the intersection of education policy and classroom teaching, particularly in special education. Much of this work has examined on the measurement of teachers' work, including how to conceptualize and measure teaching effectiveness.

In addition, Dr. Jones has leveraged state and district administrative datasets to explore pressing questions surrounding special education staffing policies, including whether students with disabilities have access to high-quality general education and special education teachers and whether staffing models such as co-teaching and the use of paraprofessionals lead to improved student outcomes.

Dr. Jones is on leave from his position as an associate professor in the Special Education Program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He is a founding member of the BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences. Dr. Jones received his PhD in Special Education & Education Policy from Michigan State University.

Associated IES Content

Grant

Validating an Observation Protocol for the Evaluation of Special Educators

The purpose of this project was to examine the validity of Charlotte Danielson's Framework for Teaching (FFT) for use with special education teachers. The FFT is commonly used to evaluate general and special education teacher instruction, yet most of the research on this tool has only been with general education teachers. Moreover, the extent to which the FFT captures evidence-based instructional approaches for students with disabilities has not been investigated. As such, the goal of the cu...
Federal funding program:
Special Education Research Grants
Award number:
R324A150231

2024 Annual Principal Investigators Meeting

Welcome to the 2025 IES Principal Investigators (PI) Meeting—our first in-person meeting in five years! The PI Meeting provides a unique occasion to bring together the IES community to learn from other researchers and IES staff about common challenges and opportunities facing the field. We hope that you use this meeting as a place to reconnect with existing colleagues, as well as to build new cross-disciplinary relationships.

FY2021

Special Education FY2021

Minutes of Meeting: December 4-5, 2023

NBES meeting minutes on December 4-5, 2023

Minutes of Meeting: September 11, 2023

NBES meeting minutes on September 11, 2023

About

2018 About Page - About IES, NCER, NCSER and Co-Chairs

FY2019

FY2019 Single-Session Peer Review Panel
Grant

Post Doctoral Research Training in Education Sciences

The Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Education Sciences provided interdisciplinary training in methods for education research, including statistical methods, measurement methods, evaluation methods, and research design to seven fellows
Federal funding program:
Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences
Award number:
R305B100027
Grant

Postdoctoral Research Training in Education Sciences

This program trained five postdoctoral fellows in advanced measurement, research design, and statistical analysis methods to support high-quality educational research. The fellows worked in on a variety of substantive and methodological educational research projects at Northwestern University.
Federal funding program:
Research Training Programs in the Education Sciences
Award number:
R305B050014