{"id":22164,"date":"2016-07-05T10:05:19","date_gmt":"2016-07-05T14:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/?post_type=profile&p=22164"},"modified":"2026-05-12T10:22:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T14:22:42","slug":"nathan-jones","status":"publish","type":"profile","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/wheelock\/profile\/nathan-jones\/","title":{"rendered":"Nathan Jones"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Nathan Jones is a professor in the Special Education program at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development. He is affiliated faculty with the Wheelock Educational Policy Center (WEPC)<\/a> and is a founding member of the BU Faculty of Computing & Data Sciences. Beginning on September 1, 2023, Dr. Jones is on leave from Boston University while he serves as Commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSERS) in the US Department of Education\u2019s Institute of Education Sciences (IES)<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In his research, Dr. Jones focuses on the intersection of education policy and classroom teaching, particularly in special education. Much of this work has examined on the measurement of teachers\u2019 work, including how to conceptualize and measure teaching effectiveness. In addition, Dr. Jones has leveraged state and district administrative datasets to explore pressing questions surrounding special education staffing policies, including whether students with disabilities have access to high-quality general education and special education teachers and whether staffing models such as co-teaching and the use of paraprofessionals lead to improved student outcomes. Finally, he studies how to improve the quality of teacher preparation, including how to ensure that general educators receive sufficient opportunities to learn and practice essential skills for supporting students with disabilities.<\/p>\n

Dr. Jones’s research has been supported through grants from the National Science Foundation, the Institute for Education Sciences, the William T. Grant Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation, among others. His research has appeared in leading journals in special education, education policy, and measurement, including the Journal of Human Resources<\/em>, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis<\/em>, Educational Researcher<\/em>, AERA Open<\/em>, Exceptional Children<\/em>, Remedial and Special Education<\/em>, and Educational Assessment<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 2022, he served as a committee member for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report, The Future of Education Research at IES: Advancing an Equity-Oriented Science<\/a><\/em>. He is currently working on a forthcoming book that will focus on teacher time use, arguing that time is at the root of many problems in schools, particularly those related to classroom instruction.<\/p>\n

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