Anna Nicotera is a Senior Associate at Basis. Anna’s research focuses on the impact of macro-level policies, programs, and governance structures on student-level educational opportunities and outcomes. She is currently leading a multi-year study to discover how providing students and parents with specific information on higher education outcomes may impact their college decision-making and working with a consortium of school districts in Arizona to implement and analyze an educator performance evaluation system. She also has substantial charter school and school choice expertise, serving as the lead evaluator for National Association for Charter Authorizers’ Better Outcomes through Quality Authorizing project.
Prior to joining Basis, Anna was the senior director of research at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools where she developed the Public Charter School Dashboard. She has also been an advisor to the U.S. Department of Education’s Evaluation of the Charter Schools Program and the redesign of the Schools and Staffing Survey. From 2009 through 2016, Anna served on the board of a public charter school in Denver that enrolled a high percentage of English Language Learners. While earning her Ph.D. in Leadership and Policy Studies from Vanderbilt University, she was a pre-doctoral research fellow with the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences and a graduate research assistant at the National Center on School Choice. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in political science with honors from the University of Chicago.
