Rachel Valentino

RValentino
Rachel Valentino
Senior Advisor,
McKinsey & Company

Rachel Valentino is a senior advisor and former associate partner at McKinsey & Company, working primarily with public school districts, foundations, and nonprofits. She was previously a senior research fellow with the Institute for Education Sciences and a senior research and policy consultant with Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Her research expertise includes early childhood education policy, bilingual education, educational inequality, and achievement gap closure. She has worked with research institutes such as the National Institute for Early Education Research, as well as state departments of education and large urban school districts. Valentino received her PhD in education administration and policy analysis from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

updated 2025

Contributing topics
Access, quality & alignment in early childhood education
Understanding, measuring & improving student outcomes
Commentary by Rachel Valentino
: Effectiveness of Four Instructional Programs Designed to Serve English Learners: Variation by Ethnicity and Initial English Proficiency
Rachel Valentino in the Media
: Students Learning English Benefit More in Two-Language Instructional Programs Than English Immersion, Stanford Research Finds
: San Francisco's Bilingual Programs as Effective as English Only, Study Finds
Publications by Rachel Valentino
PreK–3 Alignment in California's Education System
Obstacles and Opportunities
Over the past several years, there has been much attention and advocacy around “PreK-3 Alignment,” both in California and nationwide. The push for alignment comes in the face of a growing body of research documenting the benefits of attending high…