The Power of Data

Dean Catherine Horn believes researchers have the responsibility to solve society’s most pressing issues—starting with making education more equitable.

By Staci Parks

Catherine “Cathy” Horn has worked at nearly every level of education. Now, as dean of the University of Houston’s College of Education, she wants to fix the education policy problems she’s witnessed, both during her time as an educator and through the massive database she now has access to that indicates patterns in student resources, performance and other metrics across the state.

Horn, a former Fulbright Research Scholar, directs both the UH College of Education’s Institute for Education Policy Research and Evaluation and the Education Research Center (ERC), which works with “researchers, practitioners, state and federal agencies, and other policymakers to help inform upon critical issues relating to education.”

Now in its sixth year, the ERC connects data from the Texas Education Agency, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Workforce Commission. It’s one of three such centers in Texas, which is one of only a handful of states offering this kind of access.

This data allows researchers like Horn to follow Texas students from K-12 to postsecondary institutions and into the workforce, as long as students remain within the state, and provides valuable insight into how students are—or aren’t—being supported through resources.

The goal is to help policymakers gain a deeper, more holistic understanding of the pain points and successes within Texas’ education system. We asked Horn about the ERC’s impact on education policy and how she thinks research can make Texas schools more equitable.

HOW HAS THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE CENTER’S WORK IMPACTED EDUCATION POLICY IN TEXAS?

We’ve had a really strong, positive investment, especially over the past two legislative sessions, in seeking to ensure that those who are interested in education are well prepared and those who choose to go into the profession experience the kinds of conditions, including salary, that really motivate them to stay in the career.

There was a lot of discussion in the recent legislative session about the role of funding in the pre-service experience (e.g., funding while going through college). Our work helps inform that. We know, through the research that we’ve done, that there are salary differentials that cut across regions within the state. We’ve been able to help document the space where we have a chronic need for critical teaching areas and where there are bright spots— districts where there are education preparation providers, for both sides of the experience, that are really shining stars.

EDUCATION IS IN A COMPLEX, PIVOTAL MOMENT. TEACHERS ARE LEAVING THE PROFESSION, ADMINISTRATORS ARE SCRAMBLING TO SOLVE PROBLEMS AND MAJOR DECISIONS ARE BEING MADE AT THE STATE LEVEL. HOW CAN RESEARCH HELP?

The important question for me is, “How should researchers be helpful?” I think that our work and good policy research, in general, do two things: One, it asks and rigorously answers truly important questions. Policymaking is a messy, complicated enterprise, and asking the right questions matters in helping inform how good policy is developed.

The other piece is, how you represent that rigorous work matters. There are very smart, thoughtful policymakers in Austin who are trying to learn all that they can. But, they are not education scholars, nor should they be. Part of the ERC’s responsibility, which I think has been difference-making, is ensuring that we are representing what we know in ways that are both accurate and accessible to a very smart lay audience.

WHAT MADE YOU GRAVITATE TOWARD QUANTITATIVE

RESEARCH?

After finishing my master’s degree, I taught students within Houston ISD who were designated as “struggling.” What I learned from that experience was that state education policy and, in particular, the district testing policy at the time had unintended consequences of undervaluing these students’ strengths and constraining their life chances in ways that, from my perspective, were just completely unacceptable. So, that sent me off to grad school.

WHAT WERE YOUR FINDINGS REGARDING HOW TO COMBAT THESE INEQUALITIES?

In my Ph.D. work, I focused on the critical transition from completing high school to accessing and potentially enrolling in college and how policy can either facilitate or impede that transition, particularly for students who have historically and currently been marginalized and minoritized by our society. We have to look at that really carefully, because we want to make progress as easy and smooth as possible for everyone. This space is so crucial and so consequential in the multiple encounters students have with policy on all points in that journey. I just dove right in, more or less, and haven’t left.

WHAT’S SOMETHING UNIQUE OR MEANINGFUL THAT INSPIRES YOUR WORK?

In my office, I have a series of photographs of a ship canal that a very dear friend took. These images have important personal, embedded messages—really powerful reminders of what it is to be in the work and doing the work, and that we should all be leaning into our strengths. My friend who took the photos is a physicist. That’s his day job, but he’s incredibly talented in a way that encourages me, every day, to show up with my whole self.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PLACE OFF-CAMPUS IN HOUSTON?

This is a weird thing to say, but I like the walk around Hermann Park. There’s a very clear path that takes you around the full perimeter. It’s one of the big, original parks of the city. I love it because it’s old, grand and peaceful, and it’s so often filled with the joy and complexity that I love about Houston.

Catherine Horn is dean of UH’s College of Education and director of the Institute for Educational Policy Research and Evaluation and the Education Research Center. She completed her undergraduate degree at Rice University, her master’s degree at UH and her doctorate in education research at Boston University and is a former Fulbright Research Scholar.