Rebecca (Becki) Herman (she/her) is a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. She specializes in conducting and evaluating research on school leadership, comprehensive school reform, positive behavioral interventions, and related school, district, and higher education initiatives. Herman has helped set standards for and conducted critical reviews of research on educational programs, practices, and policies, and she is recognized for producing easily accessible products that resonate with practitioners, policymakers, and the public.
She has delivered congressional testimony, as well as dozens of invited presentations on school leadership, school turnaround, comprehensive school reform, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and evidence-based school improvement. She also has worked with the U.S. Air Force and Department of Defense to support the use of effective practices in personnel development.
Herman trained and served as a teacher early in her career. She earned her Ph.D. in sociology, specializing in education, at Johns Hopkins University.
Selected Publications
Gates, Susan M., Ashley Woo, Lea Xenakis, Elaine Lin Wang, Rebecca Herman, Megan Andrew, and Ivy Todd, Using State-Level Policy Levers to Promote Principal Quality: Lessons from Seven States Partnering with Principal Preparation Programs and Districts, RAND Corporation (RR-A413-1), 2020
Wang, Elaine Lin, Susan M. Gates, Rebecca Herman, Monica Mean, Rachel Perera, Tiffany Berglund, Katie Whipkey, and Megan Andrew, Launching a Redesign of University Principal Preparation Programs: Partners Collaborate for Change, RAND Corporation (RR-2612), 2018
Herman, Rebecca, Susan M. Gates, Aziza Arifkhanova, Andriy Bega, Emilio R. Chavez-Herrerias, Eugeniu Han, Mark A. Harris, Jennifer T. Leschitz, and Stephani L. Wrabel, School Leadership Interventions Under the Every Student Succeeds Act: Evidence Review: Updated and Expanded, RAND Corporation (RR-1550-2-WF), 2017
Wrabel, Stephani L., Rebecca Herman, and Susan M. Gates, RAND School Leadership Intervention Evaluation Toolkit, RAND Corporation (TL-239), 2018
Mann, Elizabeth, Herman, Rebecca, and Hansen, Michael "Should they stay or should they go: The mythical appeal of staff replacement as a turnaround strategy," in Meyers, Coby and Darwin, Marlene, Enduring myths that inhibit school turnaround, Information Age Publishing, 2017
Herman, Rebecca, Angela A. Hung, Jeremy Burke, Katherine Grace Carman, Noreen Clancy, Julia H. Kaufman, and Katie Wilson, A Tool for Reviewing K–12 Financial Education Curricula, RAND Corporation (TL-181-CFPB), 2015
Dragoset, L., James-Burdumy, S., Hallgren, K., Perez-Johnson, I., Herrmann, M., Tuttle, C., Angus, M.H., Herman, R., Murray, M., Tanenbaum, C., and Graczewski, C., Usage of Policies and Practices Promoted by Race to the Top, NCEE, 2015
Daugherty, Lindsay, Rebecca Herman, and Fatih Unlu, Logic Models for Selecting, Designing, and Implementing Evidence-Based Leadership Interventions: Companion Guide to School Leadership Interventions Under the Every Student Succeeds Act, RAND Corporation (TL-274), 2017