Biography

Dr. Kathryn E. Wiley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University. She is an expert in school discipline, climate, and safety, with a focus on race and educational opportunity. She uses multiple research methods and a historical lens to understand contemporary education policies in the context of longstanding, racialized inequalities. Dr. Wiley’s research has been published in Educational Administration Quarterly, Race Ethnicity and Education, The Urban Review, among others. An avid public scholar, she is passionate about supporting education leaders, advocates, organizers, and lawmakers in equity-oriented change for racial and social justice in schools and districts. She has worked with state and federal policy coalitions to inform evidenced-based policy language and recommendations on school discipline, climate, and safety, often with a focus on creating affirming, and sustaining school environments for Black students. She has worked with youth and community organizers to promote the use of research as part of larger education justice campaigns to end the school-to-prison pipeline. She serves as a 2025 AERA Senate Congressional Fellow.

Recent Publications

Wiley, K. E., Williams III, J. A., Simmons, S. (2025). From slow reform to meaningful abolition: Exclusionary school discipline and the need for a new paradigm. Texas Education Review, 13(1), 215-233. https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/58396 

Williams III, J. A., & Wiley, K. E. (2025). A new school discipline fulcrum: Identifying and rectifying. Texas Education Review, 13(1), 106-111. https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/58402 

Wiley, K., & Reed, D.S. (2024). From path dependence to alternative paths. History of Education Quarterly, 64, 377-380. doi:10.1017/heq.2024.35

Zabala, C., Somerville, K., & Wiley, K. (2024). Challenging majoritarian “reform” narratives of school resource officers: A critical examination of policy recommendations. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis  https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737231212168  

Wiley, K., *Townsend, C., *Trujillo, M., & Anyon, Y. (2022). Deep punishment and internal colony: a critical analysis of in-school suspension rooms inside two racially “integrated” middle schools. The Urban Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-021-00629-8

Anyon, Y., Wiley, K., Samimi, C., & *Trujillo, M. (2021). Sent out or sent home: Understanding racial disparities across suspension types from Critical Race Theory and Quantcrit perspectives. Race Ethnicity and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2021.2019000

Wiley, K. (2021). A Tale of Two Logics: Racial Disparities and School Discipline in a Mostly-White Middle School. American Journal of Education, Vol. 127(2), p. 163-192. DOI: 10.1086/712084