Heather J. Hough

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

Heather J. Hough is a senior research and policy fellow and former executive director of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) at Stanford University. As executive director, she led major statewide initiatives connecting research, policy, and practice. Hough is also an independent consultant and nationally recognized expert in education policy and governance. She works with state and local leaders to strengthen education systems with a focus on strategic planning, policy coherence, system improvement, and collaborative decision making. Her consulting practice helps organizations translate evidence into action by aligning goals, policies, and resources to improve student outcomes and rebuild public trust in education. She is an active volunteer and board member at the local and state levels, where she advances meaningful policy changes that improve people’s lives and strengthen public services delivery. Hough received her PhD in education policy from Stanford University.

updated 2025

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
: California’s Dashboard Data Will Guide Improvement
Heather J. Hough in the Media
Ventura County’s Standardized Test Scores Flat One Year after Pandemic Drop
 | Ventura County Star
Flat Test Scores Leave California Far Behind Pre-Covid Levels of Achievement
 | EdSource
California Student Test Scores Change Little From Last Year’s Low
 | CalMatters
Re-Envisioning Fairness in Educational Assessment: Assessment Policy and Practice
 | UCLA School of Education & Information Studies
Reducing California’s Absenteeism Crisis Should Be a Legislative Priority
 | The Orange County Register
Publications by Heather J. Hough
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Social-Emotional Learning Practices
Insights from Outlier Schools
This paper explores social-emotional learning (SEL) practices in ten middle schools and their impact on students' outcomes. Despite the growing recognition of the importance of SEL, many schools struggle to implement effective strategies. The paper…
Measuring School Contributions to Growth in Social-Emotional Learning
This report examines the stability of school effects on social-emotional learning (SEL) over two years in California's CORE districts. The correlations among school effects in the same grades across different years are positive but lower than those…
The Governor’s Budget Proposal and Getting Down to Facts II
Evidence to Inform Policy
Governor Newsom’s first Budget Proposal increases funding for education in California. There are areas of substantive overlap in the Budget Proposal and research findings from the Getting Down to Facts II (GDTFII) research project, released in…
Californians and Public Education
Views from the 2019 PACE/USC Rossier Poll
With a new governor, state superintendent and legislators in Sacramento and a diminished federal role in education, there is an opportunity for California’s leaders to take stock of recent educational reforms and make necessary improvements. There…