Tara Tucci joined the Alliance for Excellent Education in September 2008 as a research and policy assistant. In September 2011, she was promoted to senior research and policy associate. In this role, she manages and contributes to many aspects of the Alliance’s policy and grant work, focusing primarily on high school improvement policy, graduation rate calculation policy, and the link between education and the economy. She also leads the Alliance’s quantitative analysis work.

Before joining the Alliance, Ms. Tucci earned a master’s degree in public policy and management at the H. John Heinz III College at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). During that time, she worked as a research assistant for the Project on Teacher Quality for the Pennsylvania State Board of Education where she focused on secondary students’ access to advanced course work as well as Pennsylvania’s teacher preparation practices and teacher labor market trends. She also previously worked with CMU’s Center for Economic Development. Ms. Tucci holds a BA degree in sociology from Kenyon College in Ohio and is an alumna of the Institute for Educational Leadership’s Education Policy Fellowship program.