Cynthia Coburn

Cynthia E. Coburn is a professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern University. Her scholarship focuses on the relationship between instructional policy and teachers' classroom practices in urban schools. Coburn has investigated this issue in a series of studies that tackle critical issues facing public schools, including the relationship between reading policy and teachers' classroom practice; the scale-up of innovative mathematics curricula; data use at the district level; and the relationship between research and practice for school improvement. She is a member of the California Collaborative for District Reform, the DREME network investigating coherence of early mathematics instruction, the National Academy of Sciences, Medicine and Engineering NASEM) Standing Committee on Scientific Communication, and the NASEM Committee on the Future of Educational Research. She received the 2011 Early Career award from the American Educational Research Association in recognition of her contributions to the field of educational research in the first decade of her career. Coburn earned her PhD in education from Stanford University.

updated 2025