Sania Zaidi, EDC senior research scientist, is an expert in assessment design and in promoting K–12 STEM teachers’ instructional and assessment literacy. Drawing on her experience in mixed methods, she leads research in which considerations of equity, access, and social justice form integral components of both theoretical and methodological perspectives.
Zaidi is the principal investigator of EDC’s High-Quality Instructional Materials Initiative Evaluation. Previously, as a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, she led the development of over 200 open-source online classroom assessments for middle and upper elementary science courses that align with the Next Generation Science Standards.
Zaidi has collaborated with education leaders nationwide to enhance the capabilities of state and local educators to deliver high-quality science instruction. She has been an invited speaker at nine prestigious institutes internationally.
Zaidi holds a PhD in Science Education from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; an MS in Computational Natural Sciences; and a BS in Computer Science Engineering from the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. She is fluent in English, Hindi, and Urdu.