Gail L. Sunderman

Gail L. Sunderman is a research scientist in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Research and director of the Maryland Equity Project, a research and policy center focused on issues of educational opportunity in Maryland. Her research interests include educational policy and politics, school reform and the impact of policy on the educational opportunities for at-risk students. Prior to joining University of Maryland, she directed the Mid-Atlantic Equity Center at The George Washington University, where she spearheaded the development of the Equity Planning Tool, a research-based instrument designed to assist districts to assess for equity. At the Harvard Civil Rights Project (CRP), she was lead researcher on a five-year study examining the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and how this legislation influenced educational change in states and local school districts. She has published three books and her work has appeared in Review of Research in Education, Harvard Educational Review, Teacher’s College Record and Educational Researcher, among other journals, including practitioner publications. In addition to her scholarly work, Sunderman has served as expert consultant on educational disparities for the US Department of Justice and other organizations. She is a former Fulbright scholar to Afghanistan and received her PhD in political science from the University of Chicago.