Jon Valant

Jon Valant is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is the director of the Brown Center on Education Policy and editor of the Brown Center Chalkboard blog. He specializes in U.S. education policy and politics. Much of his research examines issues related to equity and opportunity in PK-12 education. This includes work to identify and address the barriers that families confront as they navigate education systems and choose schools for their children. Valant works with policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels—and with education leaders and reporters—to help bridge the gap between education research and policymaking. As part of this effort, he conducts much of his own research through research-practice partnerships (RPPs) in Louisiana and Washington, DC. This RPP work includes several studies of unified enrollment systems. Valant holds a PhD in education and an MA in political science from Stanford University, along with an MPP from Harvard University.