Joshua R Polanin

Senior Research Fellow

Joshua R Polanin is a 3ie senior fellow and a principal researcher in the Research & Evaluation program at American Institutes for Research (AIR). He has extensive experience in quantitative methodology and has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles across education, criminology, public health, and methodology, including more than 20 peer-reviewed, published meta-analyses. As the principal investigator of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) project Effects of the Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration, and Evaluation Instructional Model: Systematic Review and Innovation Through New Meta-Analysis Methodology, he leads a large-scale systematic review and is working to create the first open-source, collaborative relational database specifically for conducting systematic reviews. He is a co-principal investigator of the US Institute of Education Sciences (IES)-funded Meta-Analysis Training Institute, as well as the NSF-funded Modern Meta-Analysis Research Institute. In 2020, he won the Early Career Award from the Society for Research on Educational Evaluation. Dr Polanin holds a PhD from Loyola University Chicago and completed an IES Postdoctoral Fellowship at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody Research Institute.


The Research Fellows Program brings together experts from diverse backgrounds to provide intellectual leadership and technical support to strategic areas for 3ie. Our fellows work with our global team and are uniquely positioned to lead or support new and ongoing initiatives and programs in their areas of expertise.