About the Authors
Laura Jaeger
Since 2008, Jaeger has worked closely with WestEd’s Regional Educational Laboratory West and Innovation Studies teams and clients to examine education policy, especially as it relates to equity and postsecondary readiness. Jaeger has been involved in projects focused on a range of higher education issues including: dual enrollment programs, college access initiatives, college and career readiness standards, professional learning councils, and community college completion efforts.
The past two years Jaeger has worked closely with staff from The Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation to support their Early College High Schools (ECHS) Initiative. In this role she provided technical assistance to schools in the ECHS network, helping them interpret and utilize student-level data to improve instruction and student success. She also coordinated intersegmental, discipline-specific Professional Learning Councils (PLCs) as part of a data use project in collaboration with Cal-PASS. Finally, she helped document student support strategies within the ECHS network to inform a model of a comprehensive student support system for high-needs students in accelerated high schools.
Prior to joining WestEd, Jaeger worked as a graduate student researcher at the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing, where she synthesized research and conceptualized the use of resources on effective data use for school improvement. She began her career as a consultant at LFA Group, where she provided research, evaluation, and technical assistance services to nongovernmental organizations, foundations, and public agencies.
Jaeger received a BA in psychology with a minor in Spanish from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; and an MA in psychological studies in education from the University of California, Los Angeles' Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.
Andrea Venezia
Andrea Venezia’s work is focused on improving student readiness for, and success in, some form of postsecondary education, particularly for students who are traditionally underserved. Venezia works with schools, universities, governmental agencies, nonprofits, and foundations to strengthen programs and policies for all students, focusing on students who are not traditionally seen as college-bound.
A member of WestEd's staff since 2006, Venezia oversees a line of work focused on such issues as high school-to-college reforms at the state and federal levels, community college readiness and success, multiple curricular pathways that can prepare all students for college or career, dual enrollment in which students earn both high school and college credit for their coursework, and Early College High Schools.
Prior to joining WestEd, Venezia was Senior Policy Analyst at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. Before that, she directed Stanford University's Bridge Project, the first large-scale national study that documented state policy barriers inhibiting student progression from high school to college. Prior to those positions, Venezia worked in a variety of state, federal, and nonprofit organizations, including the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Charles A. Dana Center at the University of Texas at Austin, the U.S. Department of Education, the National Education Goals Panel, and the American Institutes for Research.
She has authored, co-authored, and co-edited numerous other reports, chapters, articles, and books, including From High School to College (2004) published by Jossey-Bass and Minding the Gap: Why Integrating High School with College Makes Sense and How to Do It (2007) published by Harvard Education Press.
She received a BA in English from Pomona College, an MA in administration and policy analysis in higher education from Stanford University, and a PhD in public policy from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin.
