Jennifer A. Bland is a Senior Researcher at the Learning Policy Institute. She co-leads LPI's Educator Quality team, where her research focuses on providing policymakers with robust data on teacher residencies and other clinically rich forms of teacher preparation to inform long-term investments in teacher workforce development and teacher shortage reduction. A substantial focus of this work has been in Texas, where she recently led multiple studies on the state’s teacher labor market and teacher development system. In addition to ongoing work in Texas, Bland’s current teacher preparation research addresses policy implementation in Arkansas and California.

Bland’s LPI work also spans two other key issue areas. She jointly leads work in a new research area at LPI that focuses on providing policymakers with actionable insights related to the growing implications of climate change for student learning conditions and for school and school system operations. Bland also studies state policy levers to support students experiencing homelessness, having jointly led a recent study of student homelessness policy and funding that draws on Washington state’s example to inform considerations for state policymakers and local practitioners within and beyond Washington.

Before joining LPI, Bland worked as an education researcher at SRI International’s Center for Education Policy and subsequently as an independent consultant. Over a nearly 20-year career in education research, she has co-authored numerous studies on teacher supply, demand, and distribution; teacher induction, development, evaluation, and compensation; school reform; and improving higher education access and outcomes for students from historically marginalized groups. Bland received a BA in Political Science from Stanford University and an MA in Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership Studies from the Stanford Graduate School of Education.