Education ResearchER , SRI Education
Gullnar Syed brings experience in measurement, psychometric evaluation and assessment in early learning settings to her work in SRI’s Center for Learning and Development. She is experienced in project management, qualitative analysis, and direct child and classroom observation.
At SRI, Syed contributes to a variety of research and evaluation projects in early learning settings. She is part of the core team of the ongoing Reimagining Instructional Coaching in Early Education (RICiEE) initiative, routinely applying her expertise in classroom measurement, coaching and technology to support early childhood educators. She recently led a team of 15+ observers in a multi-state data collection effort, examining the reliability and feasibility of video observations in PreK classrooms. She currently serves as project director on the AI for PreK Teachers project, exploring innovative AI-enabled solutions to coaching and assessments in support of teachers. She also supports an evaluation of BEST in CLASS, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences.
Before joining SRI, Syed was a research fellow at the Center on the Ecology of Early Development at Boston University. There, she worked on racial and health equity projects, including on the development of the Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale (ACSES) measure.
Syed holds an MA in applied developmental psychology from George Mason University, and a BS in psychology from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Key projects
- Reimagining Instructional Coaching in Early Education (RICiEE)
- Ready to Learn Evaluation
- Effectiveness Replication of the BEST in CLASS Intervention for Young Children at High Risk for Delays in Social or Emotional Development
Selected publications
- *Innovations and opportunities in care for Black mothers and birthing people
- *A validation study of the Assessing Classroom Sociocultural Equity Scale (ACSES) in pre-kindergarten to third grade classrooms.
*Publications prior to joining SRI International.
