Janelle Scott is the Robert C. and Mary Catherine Birgeneau Distinguished Chair in Educational Disparities and Professor at the University of California at Berkeley in the Graduate School of Education, Goldman School of Public Policy, and African American Studies Department. She is also the Chair of the Race, Diversity, and Education Policy cluster with the Haas Center for a Fair and Inclusive Society. She earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of California at Los Angeles’ Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.

Before earning her doctorate, she worked as an elementary teacher in Oakland, California. Scott’s research investigates how market-based educational reforms affect democratic accountability and equity within schools and school systems. She has explored this research program across several policy strands: 1) the racial politics of public education, 2) the politics of school choice, marketization, and privatization, 3) the politics of research evidence on market-oriented policies, and, 4) the role of advocacy in shaping public education.

She was awarded a Spencer Dissertation Year Fellowship, and a National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. In 2014, she was awarded the Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Educational Research Association’s Committee on Scholars of Color. In 2017, she received a Distinguished Faculty Mentorship Award from UC Berkeley. She has served on the editorial boards of the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Administration Quarterly, AERA Open, and Education Policy Analysis Archives. She is currently Vice President of Division L (Educational Policy and Politics) of the American Educational Research Association. Her latest book is: Horsford, S., Scott, J. & Anderson, G. (2018). The politics of education in an era of inequality: Possibilities for democratic Schooling. New York: Routledge.