Melissa Arellanes, researcher at AIR, has over 10 years’ experience in conducting rigorous quantitative and qualitative data analyses. Ms. Arellanes currently serves as a quantitative analyst on an evaluation of an intervention, Teach for America’s Rural Schools Leadership Academy, designed to improve the effectiveness of school principals or other school leaders. She was a member of the quantitative data team evaluating Senate Bill 1041 reforms to California’s Welfare-to-Work (CalWORKs) program to test the impact of changes aimed to provide a more flexible approach to supporting adult participants’ self-sufficiency. She also previously worked on an evaluation of a Grades K–3 literacy intervention in a large urban district, for which her responsibilities included managing and analyzing teacher and literacy coach logs, conducting principal interviews and teacher focus groups, coding transcripts, and analyzing student achievement data. Ms. Arellanes earned a BA in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
