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Erika M. Kitzmiller studies historical and contemporary policies and practices that contribute to inequality and identifies solutions to end it.
She is the award-winning author of two books, Unchartered: How One Public High School Transformed First-Generation College Success and The Roots of Educational Inequality: Philadelphia’s Germantown High School, 1907 – 2014. Erika’s teaching and scholarship advance education policy and practice by identifying, implementing, and evaluating strategies to improve educational outcomes for diverse students, from K-12 through postsecondary education. Her teaching and research are rooted in community-based, collaborative research that promotes inquiry-driven, practice-based methods and solutions to advance equity, justice, and opportunity.
She has published research articles in Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, and Educational Researcher and opinion pieces in The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Hechinger Report, as well as many other venues. She has received funding from Harvard University, the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, among many others. She has a Substack newsletter, Ask an Educator. Learn more.
Dr. Kitzmiller is a research associate professor at the Crown School of Social Policy, Practice, and Work and the Kersten Institute for Urban Education at the University of Chicago. Learn more.
Unchartered - Available Now
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“This book is as much an invitation as it is a provocation. It asks us to resist cynicism and imagine what public education could become when we value collaboration over competition, equity over expediency, and relationships over rigid systems.” - Yolanda Sealey Ruiz
“Unchartered shows the endless possibilities that emerge from urban public school reform rooted in school-based educators collaborating with students instead of copying corporate takeovers with top-down, top-heavy approaches.” -Camika Royal
“Drawing from her own experience as a teacher, researcher, and first-generation college student, Erika Kitzmiller delivers a powerful and accessible story of the public high school that ‘could.’” -Amy Hillier