Kathryn James McGraw

Kathryn James McGraw is a PhD candidate in Education Policy with a focus on school and district leadership. Prior to her studies at Peabody, Kathryn worked as a high school English teacher in Jackson, Mississippi. She also served as assistant principal for the Mississippi Teacher Corps, an alternate-route teacher certification program training teachers for placement in hard-to-staff districts across the state. While teaching, she served as department chair, team lead, and led districtwide professional development. Kathryn is a nationally board-certified teacher.

Kathryn uses quantitative and mixed methods to study how school and district leaders navigate their policy and organizational contexts. In particular, her current work examines teacher and leader labor markets, state accountability systems, and school discipline and climate. Kathryn’s dissertation uses career history microdata and interviews to examine the career paths of career-switch school leaders who exit or enter education mid-career, situating these career transitions in their personal, job role, school district, and labor market contexts.