My name is Katie Dukes. I’m a writer and educator focused on local solutions to state and national policy problems.
I became a teacher because I saw education as the great equalizer, a way to disrupt intergenerational poverty for children, families, and their communities.
Over more than a decade in public schools, I realized that the time in students’ lives when education was most likely to have an equalizing effect was well before they reached my high school classroom.
Now I research early childhood education policy and write about how it shapes the lives of young learners.
As Director of Early Childhood Policy, I research and analyze data related to the provision of child care in North Carolina, in addition writing about the experiences of children, educators, and families.
While earning my master of public policy degree in 2019-21, I published original research into the prevalence of school resource officers (SROs) in North Carolina’s local public schools, which has since enabled additional researchers to determine the efficacy of SROs in relation to school safety.
Cary High School & the Governor’s School of N.C.
From 2008 to 2019 I taught high school social studies, including required courses in world history, American history, civics, and economics, plus elective courses covering sociology, psychology, and African American studies. From 2014 to 2019 I also taught social science during the summer at the nation’s oldest free residential summer learning program for students considered academically gifted.