Heather Rose

Adjunct Fellow,

Public Policy Institute of California

Heather Rose is an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and an associate professor at the UC Davis School of Education. She specializes in the economics of K–12 education, school finance, and education policy and governance, with an emphasis on quantitative methods. Her recent work includes analyses of school finance reform proposals in California and the creation of a model for simulating the effects of new funding formulas. Current projects include a study of how spending patterns in California charter schools differ from those of traditional public schools. Rose received her PhD from the University of California, San Diego.

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

Getting Down To Facts II

Commentary by Heather Rose

October 27, 2015 : Do Charter Schools Spend Revenue Differently than Traditional Public Schools?

Heather Rose in the Media

May 5, 2012 : California K–12 Funding, Governance Still Troubled, Report Says

Publications by Heather Rose

May 2012

Getting Down To Facts

Five Years Later

This report commemorates the fifth anniversary of the Getting Down to Facts project, which sought to provide a thorough and reliable analysis of the critical challenges facing California’s education system as the necessary basis for an informed…