Heather J. Hough

heather_hough
Heather J. Hough
Senior Policy and Research Fellow,
Policy Analysis for California Education, Stanford University

Heather Hough is a senior policy and research fellow and the former executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). Her research and analytic approach explores how a wide range of data on student outcomes—including academic, health and well-being, and experiential—can inform our collective understanding of student success, teacher and system performance, and the efficacy of programs and policies. She is committed to strengthening the impact of research on local- and state-level policymaking and implementation, with a particular focus on policy coherence, system alignment, and continuous improvement. Hough has worked in a variety of capacities to support policy and practice in education, including as the founding director of the research partnership between PACE and the CORE Districts; as an improvement advisor at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; and as a researcher at the Public Policy Institute of California, the Center for Education Policy Analysis at Stanford University, and the Center for Education Policy at SRI International. She has served on many statewide committees and work groups, and is currently a member of the advisory board for the Cradle-to-Career Data System. Hough received her BA in public policy and her PhD in education policy from Stanford University.

updated 2024

Contributing topics
Access, quality & alignment in early childhood education
College access & postsecondary success
Continuous school improvement & support
Education finance
Educational governance & policy
Educator workforce & effectiveness
Supporting students’ social-emotional, mental & physical health
Understanding, measuring & improving student outcomes
Contributing initiatives
Continuous Improvement and Support Systems in California
CORE-PACE Research Partnership
COVID-19 Recovery
Getting Down To Facts II
LCFF Research Collaborative
Organizing Schools to Serve Students with Disabilities
PACE/USC Rossier Voter Poll
Commentary by Heather J. Hough
: Why Aren’t Students Showing Up for School?: Understanding the Complexity Behind Rising Rates of Chronic Absenteeism
: Chronic Absenteeism Post-Pandemic: Let’s Not Make This Our “New Normal”
: California Test Scores Show the Devastating Impact of the Pandemic on Student Learning
: Implementing a Restorative Restart by Planning for the Four Ts: Time, Talent, Training, and Technology/Materials
: COVID-19 and the Educational Equity Crisis: Evidence on Learning Loss From the CORE Data Collaborative
Heather J. Hough in the Media
: How California’s School ‘Dashboard’ Obscures Poor Academic Performance
: California’s Missing Kids: Almost Three-Quarters of the Loss Explained
: How Are Students Doing? New California School Dashboard is Out
: PACE Executive Director Heather Hough on Cultivating a Sense of Belonging to Spark Students’ Enthusiasm for Learning in EdSource Podcast
: Boosting Student Success After COVID Is a Team Effort
Publications by Heather J. Hough
Learning From Early Adopters in the New Accountability Era: Insights From California’s CORE Waiver DIstricts
Learning From Early Adopters in the New Accountability Era
Insights From California’s CORE Waiver Districts
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) represents a notable shift in K–12 accountability, requiring a more comprehensive approach to assessing school performance and a less prescriptive approach to intervening in low-performing schools. This articles…
SEL CC Report
Using Surveys of Students' Social-Emotional Skills and School Climate for Accountability and Continuous Improvement
This report and accompanying policy brief show that there is good reason to pursue the measurement of social-emotional learning (SEL) and school culture/climate (CC) as a way to better understand student and school performance. Using data from…
At the Forefront of the New Accountability Era: Early Implementation Findings from the CORE Waiver Districts
At the Forefront of the New Accountability Era
Early Implementation Findings from the CORE Waiver Districts
California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) encourages the use of multiple measures of school performance used…
Core Implementation Report 11-2016
Local Control in Action
Learning from the CORE Districts' Focus on Measurement, Capacity Building, and Shared Accountability
California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California’s Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) encourages the use of multiple measures of school performance used…