Melissa Thomas has extensive experience overseeing large, longitudinal data collection efforts with multiple components. Her research focuses primarily on adolescent pregnancy prevention and education programs and policy.
Thomas directs the survey for a rigorous impact evaluation of teen pregnancy prevention programs. She also oversees the survey for an evaluation of adolescent pregnancy prevention approaches, developing and designing baseline and follow-up instruments for the impact evaluation and managing data collection across seven sites. Her education research includes a national evaluation of mathematics curricula. In her role as survey director, she oversees computer-assisted personal interviewing for approximately 10,000 students. The team is also collecting student records and class rosters, conducting classroom observations, and administering teacher surveys and assessments to approximately 800 teachers.
Before joining Mathematica, Thomas held positions at the University of Texas and the Austin/Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center. She has an M.A. in sociology from the University of Texas.
Mathematica examined whether some early elementary school math curricula are more effective than others at improving student math achievement in disadvantaged schools.
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