WestEd Senior Policy Associate Reino Makkonen is a senior researcher with two decades of experience studying teacher workforce issues and school and district leadership across Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah. His work involves developing and validating interview, survey, and observation instruments and evaluating educator development programs via mixed methods.
His recent technical assistance efforts with state and district leaders have focused on developing theories of change for new educator support initiatives, designing implementation and formative evaluation plans to monitor early indicators, and expanding the use and application of research evidence.
Prior to joining WestEd, Makkonen spent several years developing, implementing, and studying early literacy curricula with Houghton Mifflin. He holds a masters degree in educational policy analysis from Harvard University and a doctorate in educational measurement and evaluation from University of California Berkeley.