Anita M. Sands is a lead policy research analyst and author in the ETS Center for Global Assessment and Human Capital. Her primary interests are education equity, economic opportunity, and racial and economic segregation. Her early policy work focused on expanding affordable housing options for low-income families by demonstrating the extent to which land use policy and de facto economic and racial segregation reduce access to opportunity in the United States. At ETS, Sands leverages her skills, experience, and substantive knowledge to explore more deeply the role of opportunity in acquiring skills and education and how that plays out in life outcomes. Using large-scale assessment data from the National Center for Education Statistics and the OECD’s Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies and Programme for International Student Assessment, she has written numerous reports, blogs, and op eds for the center that seek to highlight systemic inequities in access to education and skills and the consequences of this for individuals and the nation, focusing her attention on young adults, the incarcerated, and early career populations.
Prior to being on staff at ETS, Sands taught in Rider University's Department of Sociology and owned and operated ARI Planning & Research, Inc., a research consulting firm that provided clients with social science research services including survey research, program evaluations, and fiscal and community impact studies. Sands is all but dissertation toward a Ph.D. in applied sociology and urban studies from Temple University.