Overview

Lauren Decker-Woodrow, PhD, is a Principal Research Associate with 15+ years of experience in program evaluation and 10+ years of experience in technical assistance. She has led rigorous research and evaluation projects and provided consulting, technical assistance, and capacity building in several states, including Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, and Virginia. Decker-Woodrow also has experience conducting cost, benefit-cost, and cost-effectiveness analyses since completing the week-long, IES-funded training on these methods from the Center for Benefit Cost Studies in Education.

Decker-Woodrow currently serves as the deputy director of the Region 14 Comprehensive Center serving Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas and is responsible for the management of communication, evaluation, and quality assurance. Until recently, Woodrow served as principal investigator (PI) and project director (PD) on a 10-year QED study of a city-initiated pre-kindergarten initiative with the evaluation, including 15,000+ children to date. Her current role is senior advisor as she mentors and trains a new PD.

She is also currently serving as PI on an IES Efficacy trial of an interactive touch-based mathematics application designed to increase conceptual understanding of algebraic ideas in comparison to two other treatment conditions and one business-as-usual condition.

Education

• PhD, Educational Psychology-Applied Developmental Science (formerly Risk and Prevention in Education Sciences), University of Virginia
• MEd, Educational Psychology, University of Virginia
• BA, Psychology, Pennsylvania State University