Expertise

Comparative education policy; educational development; education and inequality; faith-based institutions and education

At the Keough School

TJ D’Agostino, EdD is an assistant professor of the practice in the Pulte Institute for Global Development within the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. D’Agostino is also a fellow of the Keough School’s Kellogg Institute for International Studies.

Courses

• International and Comparative Education Policy (for master of global affairs, undergraduate global affairs, and international development studies students)

Research and Publications

TJ D’Agostino’s scholarship focuses on comparative education policy and an examination of systems and institutions and their role in improving educational outcomes for vulnerable children in low- and middle-income contexts. His scholarship and policy and practice engagement focus on the role and contributions of faith-based institutions and how they fit within comparative policy contexts and school and systems improvement with an emphasis on language, literacy, inclusion, and at-risk youth.

His research has examined the role of faith-based educational institutions in Africa and Latin America and explored how the institutional context shapes and influences the institutional character and contributions of faith-based education. The other major strand in his research and policy engagement is in the area of systems improvement and educational policy in low-resource settings, with a focus on vulnerable children, foundational skills development, and systems-improvement. His recent work in this area focuses on language in education policy and its intersection with foundational literacy and implementation research exploring how to improve the consistent impact of promising interventions to improve student outcomes at scale.

Recent Work

• D’Agostino, T.J., Brown-Guzman, D., Perrin, P. Liberiste-Osirus, A., and Schuenke-Lucien, K. (forthcoming). Explaining variation in treatment effects: An impact evaluation and mixed methods study of variation in early grade reading program effects. Comparative Education Review.
• D’Agostino, T.J. (2023). Faith-based education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Washington D.C.: USAID.
• D’Agostino, T.J. and Madero. (2023). The Machuca Experience: A retrospective case study of school-based socio-economic integration in Chile. International Journal of Educational Development.
• D’Agostino, A., & Grau I Callizo, I. (2022). Toward Understanding the Global Landscape of Educational Pluralism. Journal of School Choice, 1-23.
• D’Agostino, T. J., D’Sa, N., & Boothby, N. (2021). What’s faith got to do with it? A scoping study on local faith communities supporting child development and learning. International Journal of Educational Development, 81, 102325.
• Guzmán, J. C., Schuenke‐Lucien, K., D’Agostino, A. J., Berends, M., & Elliot, A. J. (2020). Improving Reading Instruction and Students’ Reading Skills in the Early Grades: Evidence From a Randomized Evaluation in Haiti. Reading Research Quarterly, 0(0) pp. 1–21.
• D’Agostino, T.J. Dowd, & Mugo. (2019). Faith-based education in a changing social, economic and political context: Perspectives from Catholic Educators in Kenya. Review of Faith & International Affairs. 17:4, 76-88.
• D’Agostino, T.J. & Carozza, P. (2019). Extending the research orientation and agenda for international and comparative studies in Catholic education. International Studies in Catholic Education.
• D’Agostino, T.J. (2018) Religious Charter Schools: Are They Constitutionally Permissible?, Journal of School Choice, 12:4, 506-527.

Biography

D’Agostino has worked at the intersection of research, policy, and practice in educational development for nearly twenty years. He currently is a co-principal investigator for a USAID-funded global education research grant called SHARE (Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education), where he leads cross-national studies on language and literacy policy and language and education policy for deaf-students across nine countries in Africa and Asia. He is a fellow of Notre Dame’s Institute for Educational Initiatives.

Previously, D’Agostino founded and co-led Notre Dame’s educational engagements in Haiti from 2010 to 2020, during which time he helped grow programs and research in early grade reading, teacher training, and systems strengthening. He holds a doctorate in education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody School of Education and a BA and MEd from Notre Dame.