Ilana Umansky's work focuses on quantitative and longitudinal analysis of the educational opportunities and outcomes of immigrant students, multilingual students, and students classified in school as English learners (ELs). She studies key education policies including EL identification, service provision, and reclassification, focusing on issues of stratification and opportunity. Her work has explored course-taking and access to core academic content, the effects of the EL classification system, teacher perceptions of EL-classified students, bilingual education, and policies relevant to specific groups of multilingual students such as newcomer students and adolescent EL-classified students. In recent projects, she has focused on EL identification and services for American Indian and Alaska Native students, as well as how education policies in Oaxaca, Mexico shape the experiences and opportunities of transnational students. She currently acts as co-PI for a national Research and Development Center focused on secondary-school aged multilingual students. Umansky often works in partnership with districts and states including projects with San Francisco Unified, the Michigan and Oregon state departments of education, and the Council of Chief State School Officers, as they work to improve educational opportunities for multilingual students. Prior to getting her Ph.D. at Stanford University in Sociology of Education and Race, Inequality and Language in Education, Umansky worked with the World Bank and other organizations on collaborative educational efforts in Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia, El Salvador, and other countries in Latin America. Her work has been awarded by the National Academy of Education, the Spencer Foundation, the Jacobs Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the American Educational Research Association's Bilingual Education Special Interest Group. Her work has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Policy, and Exceptional Children, among other outlets. She frequently also publishes national and state reports and policy briefs aimed at serving and informing educational policymakers.

Learn more about Professor Ilana Umansky’s research. In our Research Briefly video series, COE faculty share about a current research project and why it matters.

2020 National Academy of Education / Spencer Foundation, Postdoctoral Fellowship

2019 National Academy of Education / Spencer Foundation, Research Development Award

2017 Jacobs Foundation Young Scholars Fellowship

2015-17 ELL Working Group Policy Fellowship

2015 AERA Bilingual Education Research Special Interest Group, Outstanding Dissertation Award

2010-14 Quantitative Education Policy Analysis Fellowship, Stanford University

1999 Fulbright Fellowship, United States Government

Umansky, I., Callahan, R., Lee, J. (2020). Making the invisible visible: Identifying and interrogating the Latinx-Chinese English learner reclassification gap. American Journal of Education, 126(3): 335-388. 

Umansky, I., Hopkins, M., Dabach, D. (2020). Between a rock and a hard place: Navigating integrated and separated programming for immigrant newcomers. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 19(1): 36-59.

Thompson, K., Umansky, I., Porter, L. (2020). Recently-arrived immigrant students: Examining distribution and contexts of reception. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 19(1): 10-35.

Umansky, I., Porter, L. (2020). A framework for state English learner education policy: A conceptualization of policy areas and review of the literature. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 28(17). https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.28.4594

Santibañez, L., Umansky, I. (2018). English learners: Charting their experiences and mapping their futures in California Schools. Policy brief for Getting Down to Facts II project. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University. 

Umansky, I. (2018). According to plan?: Examining the intended and unintended treatment effects of EL classification in early elementary and the transition to middle school. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 11(4), 588-621.

Umansky, I., Hopkins, M., Dabach, D., Porter, L., Thompson, K., Pompa, D. (2018). Understanding and supporting the educational needs of recently-arrived immigrant English learner students: Lessons for state and local education agencies. Washington, DC: Council of Chief State School Officers.

Umansky, I., Thompson, K., Díaz, G. (2017). Using an ever-EL framework to examine special education disproportionality among English learner students. Exceptional Children, 84(1), 76-96.

Pallais, D., Umansky, I., (2017) Nicaraguan English learner students. In J. Egbert and G. Ernst-Slavit (Ed.s), Views from inside: Languages, cultures, and schooling for K-12 Educators. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers.

Umansky, I., (2016). Leveled and exclusionary tracking: English learners’ access to core content in middle school. American Educational Research Journal, 53(6), 1792-1833.

Umansky, I., (2016). To be or not to be EL: An examination of the impact of classifying students as English learners. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(4), 714-737.

Umansky, I., Valentino, R., Reardon, S. (2016). The promise of two language education. Educational Leadership, 73(5), 10-17.

Robinson-Cimpian, J., Thompson, K., Umansky, I. (2016). Research and policy considerations for English learner equity. Policy Insights from Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 129-137.

Umansky, I., Reardon, S., Hakuta, K., Thompson, K., Estrada, P., Hayes, K., Maldonado, H., Tandberg, S., Goldenberg, C. (2015). Improving the opportunities and outcomes of students learning English: Findings from three school district – university collaborative partnerships (Policy Brief No. 15-1). Palo Alto, CA: Policy Analysis for California Education.