Shira Small is a research assistant on the child care and early education team. She brings a background in education policy and welfare policy, focusing on ways to ameliorate inequality for marginalized communities at the ground level. Prior to joining CLASP, Shira worked in a variety of research assistant positions developing a skillset in qualitative policy analysis. At Parents Leading for Educational Equity, she helped run and analyze focus groups and surveys researching parents’ concerns about the Providence Public School District. She subsequently wrote a policy report for community members and leaders in the state legislature. She also worked at Effective to Great Education, where she investigated the ratio of school resource officers to school counselors in D.C. metro area public schools, and how it related to school district wealth and demography.

Shira graduated from Brown University in May 2022 with a degree in public policy and sociology. Her capstone researched Providence, RI magnet school programs’ impact on equity in high school learning. Shira is originally from Boston, MA.