CV
Academic Employment
2024-Present
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Brown University
Affiliations: Annenberg Institute at Brown University & Watson School of Public and International Affairs
Supervisor: Dr. Susan Moffitt
Education
2020-2024
Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies, Boston University
Specialization in Special Education
Supervised by Dr. Nathan Jones
2016-2017
Master of Teaching, University of Virginia
Specialization in Special Education and English Education
Supervised by Drs. Michael Kennedy and Natasha Heny
2013-2016
Bachelor of Arts in English with Distinction, University of Virginia
Peer-Reviewed Publications
2026
Kaler, L., Theobald, R., Jones, N., & Bettini, E. (2026). Impacts of paraeducator and teacher turnover on student outcomes. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness.
2026
Kaler, L. & Theobald, R. (2026). Turnover patterns in the paraeducator workforce in Washington state. Teacher Education and Special Education.
2025
Theobald, R., Kaler, L., Bettini, E., & Jones, N. (2025). A descriptive portrait of the paraeducator workforce in Washington state. Exceptional Children.
2025
Morris-Mathews, H., Kaler, L., Ragunathan, M, Bettini, E., & Meyer, K. (2025). “Well, those students have a name”: Special educators’ beliefs about students labeled with emotional/behavioral disorders. Exceptional Children.
2025
Jones, N., Kaler, L., Markham-Anderson, J., Senese, J., & Winters, M. (2025). Service delivery models: Impacts for students with and without disabilities. Educational Researcher.
2025
Stark, K., Camburn, E., & Kaler, L. (2025). Variation in teachers’ daily, situational motivation across professional activities. British Journal of Educational Psychology.
2024
Kaler, L., Markham-Anderson, J., & Jones, N. (2024). Service delivery models and outcomes for students with disabilities. Remedial and Special Education.
2023
Stark, K., Jones, N., Camburn, E., & Kaler, L. (2023). Measuring teachers’ momentary affect: An exploratory experience sampling study. Contemporary Educational Psychology.
2023
Green, J.G., Morabito, M., Savage, J., Goodman, N., Lincoln, E., Lanciani, J., Carroll, M., Kaler, L., Cooper, C., Norton, M., Vasquez, G., & Muller, R. (2023). Reasons police respond in schools: An analysis of narrative data from police incident reports. Child Abuse & Neglect
2022
Bettini, E., Scott, L.A., Brunsting, N.C., Kaler, L., Parker Moore, D., O’Brien, K.M., & Cumming, M.C. (2022). Experiences of working conditions among special education teachers of color serving students with EBD. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
2021
Bettini, E., Morris-Mathews, H., Lillis, J., Meyer, K., Shaheen, T., Kaler, L., & Brunsting, N.C. (2021). Special educators’ roles in inclusive schools. Invited chapter for J. McLeskey, F. Spooner, B. Algozzine, & N.L. Waldron (Eds.), Handbook of Effective, Inclusive Elementary Schools: Research and Practice.
Selected Working Papers and Reports
2026
Kaler, L., O’Neill, M.K., Strach, P., & Moffitt, S. (2026). California’s system of special education staffing (Getting Down to Facts III Technical Report). Stanford University and Policy Analysis for California Education, PACE.
2026
Kaler, L., Arnzen, C., Contreras, A., Natividad, B., Stull, N. & Moffitt, S. (2026). The politics of administrative ease: Public access to local special education information (Annenberg EdWorkingPaper No. 26-1447). Annenberg Institute at Brown University.
2025
Cleveland, C., Kaler, L., & Anderson, J. (2025). Leveraging IEPs to understand special education services at scale (WEPC Working Paper 2025-4). Wheelock Education Policy Center.
University Teaching Experience
Instructor of Record
Summer 2023
Research as Evidence (RS 615)
Boston University, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Teaching Assistant
Fall 2023,
Fall 2022
Quantitative Research Methods (RS 653)
Boston University, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Faculty Instructor: Dr. Andrew Bacher-Hicks
Spring 2022
Behavioral and Emotional Problems: Characteristics and Methods (SE 502)
Boston University, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development
Faculty Instructor: Dr. Dianne Lochhead
Associations and Affiliations
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Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
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Teacher Education Division (TED)
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Division for Emotional and Behavioral Health (DEBH)
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Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP)
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American Educational Research Association (AERA)
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Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM)