Kristy Cooper Stein is an associate professor of K-12 educational administration at Michigan State University. She earned her Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2011. Her research examines how school and district leaders systematically increase student engagement in classrooms—both to enhance student learning and to increase high school graduation rates. In relation to this, Kristy studies school improvement, teacher leadership, teaching and principal learning, and instructional leaadership. Her prior work has included analyses of data use in elementary schools and the inner-workings of high-performing, urban charter schools.