SchoolMatters
Staff
Contact Us
SchoolMatters
Our Philosophy
At S&P, we believe that parent involvement in education is paramount. Whether we are parents, community activists, teachers, principals, or decision makers, we all have a critical role to play in improving America's education system.
After all, our decisions and actions affect the education, health, and welfare of the children in our communities. By continuing to develop and promote the use of SchoolMatters, S&P is committed to doing what it can to provide parents across the country with information and analysis to help them make better-informed decisions about their child's education.
Our Service
Since its inception in 2001, as an independent, analytical resource for state and education leaders, Standard & Poor's (S&P) School Evaluation Services has evolved and become a valuable resource for parents.
In 2005, S&P began providing parents and taxpayers with an objective analysis of school and school district data via www.schoolmatters.com, a publicly-accessible, interactive website.
Due in large part to the popularity of the website, S&P has been able to engage parents across the country, all while continuing to serve as an objective source of information and analysis on our nation's public schools.
Our History
S&P Analysts have been involved in education research for many years, and have analyzed academic, financial, and demographic circumstances and trends in public schools at the local, state, and national levels. Based on their knowledge, S&P developed a service that looked beyond student performance and financial information and, instead, focused on a comprehensive review of all education information. From this idea, S&P created a new business unit, School Evaluation Services, and developed its unique Return on Resources framework to synthesize student performance, financial information, and community and school demographics to help better explain school and school district performance.
S&P believes that engaging each community around the strengths and challenges of its schools is one of the best ways to drive school improvement, which is why S&P makes its data and analysis available to the public on www.schoolmatters.com.
Staff
Paul Gazzerro, Director
Paul is responsible for analytical criteria and for Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services (SES). Paul joined Standard & Poor's in 2000. Prior to joining SES, Paul worked in the financial services industry as a management consultant with A.T. Kearney and as a bank examiner and supervisory financial analyst with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. He also analyzed Chicago public school district finances and evaluated reform initiatives for the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy. Paul holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Princeton University, a Master's degree in education policy from the Harris School at the University of Chicago, and an M.B.A. in finance and general management from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is a member of the American Education Research Association and the American Education Finance Association.
Susan Shafer, Director
Susan Shafer is the director of marketing and communications for Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's in 2004, Susan worked as a senior project director for KSA-Plus Communications, a full service communications firm in Washington, D.C. that specializes in K-12 education issues. In addition, she has served as the director of communications and press secretary for Michigan Governor John Engler. During her eight years with the Engler Administration, Susan had the opportunity to work as the director of communications for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and served as Governor Engler's deputy press secretary before taking over his communications office in 2000. Susan received a Bachelor of Arts degree in political theory and constitutional democracy from James Madison College at Michigan State University.
Murali Thyagarajan, Director
Murali is responsible for technical leadership for Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services (SES). Murali joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2007 bringing over twenty years of IT industry experience. Previously, he worked as a Manager at Moody's Investors Service taking care of rating workflow and compliance related systems. Prior to that, Murali had worked with a specialty solution provider from New Jersey as a Director of Application development successfully rolling out several applications including one for the NJ Department of Labor - Division of Workers' Compensation that received the NASIRE award in 2000. He has worked with several financial organizations including Salomon Brothers, Charles Schwab, Deutsche Bank, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch during his tenure there.
Elizabeth Fowlkes, Associate Director - Product Management
Elizabeth joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2004. Previously, she served as the director of education and community programs for a Chicago-based arts organization. She has also worked as a professional development consultant for schools. Elizabeth earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University and a Master of Arts in Education Policy from University Teacher's College.
Adrian Thibodeau, Data Associate - Data, Strategy, & Operations
Adrian joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluations Services team in 2005. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, Adrian worked as an economist within the Consumer Price Index program at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in Washington, D.C. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and history from Boston College, and an M.B.A. from New York University in finance and operations management.
Tamara Hoffman, Analyst
Tamara joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2005. Prior to joining at Standard & Poor's, Tamara worked as a research associate for the American Institutes for Research and New American Schools, where she analyzed student test score data using value-added analysis. She holds a Masters in Statistics for Policy Analysis from American University.
Michael Jaros, Analyst
Michael joined Standard and Poor's School Evaluation Service in April 2007. Mike's previous career was in education, where he has eight years experience as a classroom teacher at the Secondary Mathematics level. He holds a Master of Arts in Teaching Mathematics from the State University of New York at Binghamton, as well as a Master in Arts in Statistics from Columbia University.
Pamela Quinlan, Business Analyst
Pamela joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2007 and serves as an analyst for product management and services. Previously, she served as the senior strategist of an energy startup recognized on the Inc 500 list of fastest growing companies. She was directly responsible for policy and regulatory affairs and managed all of market development. Pamela holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from Columbia University.
Zaur Sokayev, Senior Systems Analyst
Zaur joined Standard & Poor's Information Technology department in 1999, where he worked on CORE and number of other projects before joining School Evaluation Services in 2007. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, Zaur worked at Bear Stearns investment firm and JLL Associates as a consultant. He holds a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Azerbaijan Polytechnic Institute in Azerbaijan.
TienFu Liu, Application Developer
TienFu joined Standard & Poor's Information Technology department in 2007 and serves as the application developer. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, TienFu worked at Visa development center in Portland, Maine and JPMorgan Chase in NYC as a consultant. He earned a Bachelor's degree in Business Mathematics from Soochow University in Taiwan and a Master's degree in Computer Science from the Pennsylvania State University.
Monica Helland, Data Research Analyst
Monica joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluations Services team in 2005. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, Monica worked in quality assurance for a drug testing company. She holds a bachelor's degree in Advertising Management from Southern Methodist University and an M.B.A. from the University of Denver.
Betty King, Data Research Analyst
Betty joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2005. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, she worked in the telecommunications industry, most recently as a network performance analyst and traffic engineer at Verizon Wireless. She earned a Masters in Telecommunications from University College, University of Denver.
Paul Kirby, Research Assistant
Paul joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2007. He holds a bachelor's degree in Economics from the Pennsylvania State University. Previously, Paul has worked with Oppenheimer Co., Inc. as a Finance intern.
Jennifer Harper, Research Assistant
Jennifer joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2009. Prior to joining S&P, she worked in the packaging industry for Ball Corporation as a Document Production Specialist. She holds a bachelor's degree in Marketing from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa.
Cuong Huynh, Research Assistant
Cuong Huynh began working with Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2009. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Prior to joining the SES team, Cuong worked for the CDO Surveillance and Data Operations groups in the Structured Finance department at Standard & Poor's.
Kateryna Lashko, Research Assistant
Kateryna joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2007. She holds a bachelor's degree in Financial Economics and Eastern European Studies from State University of New York at Binghamton. Prior to joining Standard and Poor’s, Kateryna worked at Morgan Stanley in the Annuities and Insurance Group.
Cecilia Moore, Research Assistant
Cecilia joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2009. She holds a bachelor's degree in Communications from the University of Denver - The Women's College and a Masters of Education degree in Curriculum Development and Instruction Specializing in English as a Second Language from the University of Phoenix. Her background experience includes teaching as well as business experience in the private business sector. Prior to joining Standard and Poor's, Cecilia worked as a substitute teacher and AVID tutor in Cherry Creek School District #5.
Tony Ng, Research Assistant
Tony joined Standard & Poor's School Evaluation Services in 2007. Prior to joining Standard & Poor's, Tony served as a Consultant with Morgan Stanley. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics and business magement with a finance specialization from Stony Brook University.
Contact Us
If you have a question or comment about SchoolMatters please send an email to schoolmatters@sandp.com. We will respond to your email in a timely manner.
You can also mail information to:
Standard & Poor's
School Evaluation Services
55 Water Street, 42nd Floor
New York, New York 10041
Attention: Susan Shafer
