Chris Bennett

Chris Bennett, an education research analyst, has extensive experience in policy analysis, data management, and survey design. In his research, he primarily uses quasi-experimental and other quantitative methods to examine topics such as college admissions, financial aid, developmental education, and college graduates’ labor market experiences.

Dr. Bennett works on postsecondary education surveys conducted on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. His main projects include the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) and its offshoots, the Baccalaureate and Beyond (B&B) and Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS) longitudinal studies. For these projects, he manages survey and administrative data, ensures data quality, develops specifications for derived variables, and produces research reports.

Before rejoining RTI in 2022, he served as a statistician for the U.S. Department of Education, where he was part of the Analytics and Evaluation team within the Office of the Chief Data Officer. He is a member of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP).