As a Senior Research Associate with WestEd's Regional Educational Laboratory West (REL West), Vanessa Barrat performs quantitative research to improve the practice and policy of education.

Barrat focuses on policy and program evaluation, data systems, survey design, applied statistics, and social research methodology. Her research in education policy is included in WestEd reports disseminated nationwide to education stakeholders.

In the Reenrollment of High School Dropouts in a Large, Urban School District report, Barrat found that dropping out is not necessarily a permanent outcome since one-third of the students who dropped out from the district high schools reenrolled in the following years. This report, which has garnered media attention nationwide, describes for policymakers and administrators a population of students at risk of not graduating from high school.

Other REL West projects that Barrat has worked on include policy analyses. She regularly presents her research findings at state and national events.

Prior to joining WestEd, Barrat worked as a research analyst for Acumen, LLC on various assessment and research projects in education and social research, including the Youth Data Archive, a data resource linking longitudinal administrative and program data across existing institutional boundaries.

She also served as an analyst at SRI International and participated in the Evaluation of Title I Accountability Systems and School Improvement Efforts.

Barrat received a BS in economics and an MS in econometrics from Pantheon-Sorbonne University – Paris 1, and a predoctoral degree in economic analysis and policy from l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociale in Paris.