Whitney Allgood joined the NSCC team in late summer 2017, bringing rich and diverse expertise from her twenty year career working with K-16 schools, public education systems, nonprofit organizations, and for-profit companies. She has worked as a teacher, researcher, policy analyst and leadership executive with considerable expertise in NSCC’s core focus areas.
Most recently Whitney served on the executive leadership team of Step-Up, Inc. as National Director of TeenPrograms where she led the organization’s effort to significantly expand teen programs nationally and capture and evaluate impact in schools. Prior to that role, she served as Chief of Staff for The News Literacy Project (NLP), an innovative and rapidly scaling educational nonprofit that teaches students how to think critically, judge the quality of information, and appreciate the value of good journalism. She remains active with NLP as a member of theirAdvisory Board. Before NLP, she served as the Director of Assessment and Accountability for the District ofColumbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education, where she managed the state assessment system for allD.C. public and charter schools, facilitated the DC State Board of Education’s adoption of Common Core Standards, and contributed to DC’s selection as a Race to the Top grantee and governing state member in the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC) assessment consortium.
From 2008 to 2010, Whitney was a Fellow with the Strategic Data Project (SDP) at Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR). As a Strategic Data Fellow, Whitney worked in the Office of Accountability at Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS), where she advised the leadership team on the addition of a value-added measure to CMS’s teacher performance pay pilot; coordinated the collection, synthesis and dissemination of CMS teacher data and relevant research to inform the district’s human capital strategy; and consulted on the development of key performance indicators for the district’s new performance management system.
Whitney began her educational career in Florida as an English and Social Studies teacher in Orange County Public Schools. She then worked with students in emergency transitional, clinical and home-based settings, teaching all subjects and grade levels, as well as managing a network of schools in Middle Tennessee supporting these students. She has taught Organizational Development and Leadership at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Human Development and consulted extensively in the non-public specialized education sector. Whitney has held research posts with The School Finance and Redesign Project and The Economic Policy Institute and provided background research for a weekly education column, “Lessons”, in The New York Times. Her research and work priorities have always been founded on a commitment to provide all students with the quality of education necessary to realize their family, community and civic obligations and maximize their personal potential.
Whitney holds a Ph.D from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Human Development and a Master of Arts in Teaching English from Rollins College. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Florida.