Ben Dalton

Ben Dalton is an expert on college and career readiness with more than a decade of experience in education research and large-scale education studies. He directs research and data collection activities for the U.S. Department of Education and other public- and private-sector clients.

Dr. Dalton serves as project director for the Best High Schools Rankings, an annual performance rating of American high schools, for U.S. News & World Report. He is Co-Principal Investigator on a four-year grant from the Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education) to study high school certifications in the state of Florida. He also serves as project director supporting the NAEP High School Transcript Studies for the U.S. Department of Education.

In the field of international education, Dr. Dalton is the associate project director for the U.S. data collection of the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), an assessment of fourth-graders’ reading comprehension in approximately 50 countries, and assists with the development of the mathematics assessment framework for the Program in International Student Assessment (PISA) 2021.

Dr. Dalton has published research in Comparative Education Review, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and Sociology of Education. He has authored numerous policy and analytical reports for U.S. Department of Education.