Lauren Bates joined CCT as a member of the New Mexico Reading First evaluation team in January 2005 and is happy her work on NMRF will continue until 2010. Her other projects have included policy research on adolescent literacy for REL-NEI and being project manager on a large randomized controlled trial to examine the impact of PBS media in preschool classrooms for the Ready to Learn Initiative.

Before getting involved in education research, Lauren taught in the US and abroad. A native New Mexican, she taught in the Las Cruces, NM public school system and at the Court Youth Center, a non-profit organization providing art education to at-risk adolescents in the Las Cruces area (now the Alma des Artes Charter School). Overseas, Lauren taught English as a second language to Korean preschoolers and elementary school students at a private academy in Suwon, South Korea.

In 1999, Lauren graduated cum laude with a bachelor's degree in psychology from Bryn Mawr College. In addition to designing and conducting original research for her undergraduate thesis, she completed research internships at the Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University and Solutions for Progress, a non-profit research group in Philadelphia. Lauren also completed coursework at the National University of Ireland at Galway, Arizona State University, and New Mexico State University.

Lauren began her master's degree in developmental psychology at Teachers College/Columbia University in the fall of 2008. When she's not cooking, doing yoga, meditating, or traversing New Mexico to visit schools, she dreams of completing her book about being an expatriate teacher in South Korea. She currently resides in Brooklyn.

Select External Writing

First grade trends in New Mexico Reading First. Paper presented at the 2008 DIBELS Summit.

The longitudinal trajectories of students: 4.5 years of New Mexico Reading First data. Poster presented at the 2008 DIBELS Summit.

Making use of DIBELS data in effective New Mexico Reading First schools. Paper presented at the 2007 DIBELS Summit.

A brief update on the Reading First evaluation. Paper presented at the February 2007 New Mexico Reading First Data Summit.

Reaching Native American students through targeted reading instruction. Poster presented at the 2006 DIBELS Summit.