John F. Pane is a senior scientist at RAND. He studies the implementation and effectiveness of innovations in education, focusing on education technology, personalized/competency-based learning, math, and science. His expertise includes the application of experimental and rigorous quasi-experimental methods. He has led or co-led numerous experiments that randomized students, teachers, or schools. Hi current experiments evaluate the efficacy of a popular digital mathematics curriculum supplement, and the relative efficacy of two ways such software can be used to help students who are behind in mathematics. Prior experiments included a large-scale effectiveness trial of mathematics tutoring software in 147 schools, 51 school districts, and seven states, and an efficacy trial of summer learning programs in five urban school districts. He led the first large-scale evaluation of school-wide personalized learning. His published methodological collaborations include work on translating standardized effect sizes into more easily interpreted metrics, unbiased parameter estimation for experiments with non-compliance or partially-nested designs, and causal mediation. He co-directed the IES postdoctoral training program, Carnegie Mellon and RAND Traineeships in Methodology and Interdisciplinary Research (CMART).
During 2015-18 he held RAND’s Distinguished Chair in Education Innovation. He is a frequent participant in review of scientific research proposals and articles and sits on advisory boards of nonprofit education organizations. Major sponsors of his research have included the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. National Science Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Wallace Foundation. He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.
Ph.D. in computer science, Carnegie Mellon University; M.S. in computer science, Carnegie Mellon University; B.S. in electrical and computer engineering and mathematics, Carnegie Mellon University
