Morgaen L. Donaldson
Assistant Professor

Morgaen L. Donaldson is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at the University of Connecticut, a Research Associate at the Center for Policy Analysis, and a Research Affiliate of the Project on the Next Generation of Teachers at Harvard University. Dr. Donaldson began her career as a high school teacher in urban and semi-urban schools and was a founding faculty member of the Boston Arts Academy, Boston’s public high school for the arts. She also served as a Project Director in a Gates Foundation-funded effort to replicate the best practices of small schools successfully serving low-income and minority populations. As a researcher, Dr. Donaldson conducts quantitative and qualitative studies on teacher quality, teacher retention, school leadership, and teachers’ unions with a particular focus on urban and rural schools. She is currently conducting studies on principals’ approaches to human capital development within their schools; teacher leadership in deregulated urban schools; and the effects of state policy on secondary school practices in four New England states.

•Ed.D., Administration, Planning, and Social Policy, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2008

•Ed.M., Teaching and Curriculum, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 1997

•A.B., History and American Studies, Princeton University, 1994

Contact Information: 

Gentry - 410

Phone: (860) 486-4438

Email: morgaen.donaldson@uconn.edu

Current Courses Taught:

Program Evaluation for School Improvement

Supervision of Educational Organizations

Associations/Committees/Outreach:

American Educational Research Association

University Council for Educational Administration

In the News:

Teachers welcome (Boston Globe, 4/6/09)

Survivor: The TFA Editition (Education Week blog, 12/23/08, 12/24/08)

In-Service (ASCD blog, 6/26/09)

So Long Lake Wobegon? (Center for American Progress event video, 6/25/09)

Areas of Expertise:

Educational Leadership

Teacher Quality

Educational Policy

Education Reform

Selected Publications/Presentations:

Morgaen L. Donaldson. (forthcoming). “Into--and out of--City Schools: The Retention of Teachers Prepared for Urban Settings.” Equity and Excellence in Education, 42(3).

Susan Moore Johnson, Morgaen L. Donaldson, Mindy Munger, John Papay, and Emily Qazilbash. (forthcoming). “Leading the local: teachers union presidents chart their own course.” Peabody Journal of Education.

Morgaen Donaldson. (2009) So Long, Lake Wobegon?: Using Teacher Evaluation to Raise Teacher Quality. Commissioned paper, Center for American Progress.

Morgaen L. Donaldson. (2009, April). “The Promise of Older Novices: Teach for America Teachers’ Age of Entry and Subsequent Retention in Teaching and Schools.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.

Susan Moore Johnson, Morgaen L. Donaldson, Mindy Munger, John Papay, and Emily Qazilbash. (2009, April). “Leading the local: teachers union presidents chart their own course.” Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.

Morgaen L. Donaldson, Susan Moore Johnson, Cheryl L. Kirkpatrick, William Marinell, Stacy Szcesiul, and Jennifer Steele. (2008). “Angling for access, bartering for change: How second-stage teachers experience differentiated roles in schools.” Teachers College Record, 111(5).

Morgaen Donaldson (2008). The Promise of Teacher Leadership. Invited presentation sponsored by the Greater Capital Region Teachers' Center at the University at Albany, Albany, NY

Susan Moore Johnson and Morgaen L. Donaldson. (2007). Overcoming the obstacles to leadership. Educational Leadership, 65(1).

Morgaen L. Donaldson. (2007). “To lead or not to lead, and how? How newly tenured teachers assess administrative and teacher leadership as career options.” In Richard Ackerman and Sarah MacKenzie (Eds.) Uncovering Teacher Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Susan Moore Johnson and Morgaen L. Donaldson (2007). “Building a human resource system in the Boston Public Schools.” In Paul Reville (Ed.), A Decade of Boston School Reform: Reflections and Aspirations. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.