Christina Grant, who has served as D.C.'s state superintendent of education since 2021, said Monday that she is stepping down at the end of this school year to lead a research center at Harvard University.

Grant, 46, is one of the city’s top education officials, overseeing early childhood programs and transportation for disabled children, as well as the administration of standardized tests and use of millions of dollars in federal pandemic relief aid. Her departure leaves a high-profile vacancy as the city’s more than 98,000 traditional public and charter schoolchildren continue to weather the academic, social and emotional fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

Grant called her new role as executive director for Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research “one of those rare opportunities.”

“Part of the vision is really working with states and districts across the country on how they can use research … to make investments,” Grant said in an interview. Those insights will be crucial in the coming months as schools brace for the expiration of $122 billion in federal relief that had been used to reopen buildings, address mental health needs and help students who had fallen behind academically.

Thomas Kane, a professor and faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Research, said he hoped Grant will help other districts test new ideas. In D.C., the superintendent’s office is spending $35 million on “high-impact” tutoring programs for more than 10,000 children in need of the most help and studying whether those efforts are working — data that school leaders hope to use to plan for future school years.

“I can’t think of anything that will make a bigger difference for where D.C., and other districts, 10 years from now or 20 years from now than getting them in the habit of piloting their best ideas on a small scale first, verifying that they actually improve student outcomes and then scale them up,” Kane said. “We’re hoping that Christina will help us bring those practices to school districts around the country.”

Bowser nominates Philadelphia school official to be D.C.’s superintendent of education

In D.C., the state superintendent’s office is the equivalent of a state education department, operating as a liaison between the federal Education Department and the city. The city’s other education leaders include the deputy mayor for education, chancellor of D.C. Public Schools and the executive director of the public charter school board.

Grant helmed D.C.’s state superintendent office through most of the pandemic. During her tenure, the city also adopted new social studies standards that include more representation for people of color and became the first jurisdiction in the country with universal menstrual health standards. The city’s graduation rate has climbed slightly from about 75 percent during the 2021-22 school year to more than 76 percent last year, and officials opened the Advanced Technical Center, which trains students for careers in nursing and cybersecurity.

But D.C., like communities across the nation, is still feeling the aftershocks of the pandemic. Schools throughout the city continue to struggle to get students to attend consistently — 43 percent of children were chronically absent last year, meaning they had missed at least 18 days of class. And test scores are lower than they were before the pandemic, indicating that students have yet to make a full academic recovery.

Grant has also come under fire for her agency’s handling of transportation services for 4,000 children with physical and intellectual disabilities. A group of D.C. parents, along with a disability rights organization, last week alleged in a lawsuit that officials are failing to transport these students to and from school on time — causing disruptions and, in some cases, threatening students’ health.

A spokesman for the superintendent’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit because the agency does not comment on pending litigation. But officials, including Grant, have previously acknowledged problems with the school bus service and pointed to a national shortage of drivers. Officials created a website that shows which buses are running behind and vowed to reimburse families who make other travel arrangements for their children.

Grant succeeded Hanseul Kang, who left in late 2020, as state superintendent and came to D.C. after working as chief of charter schools and innovation for Philadelphia’s school district, according to her biography. She also has previously served as superintendent of the Great Oaks Foundation, deputy executive director at the New York City Department of Education and as a public school teacher in Harlem.

D.C. officials said they would launch a national search for a new state superintendent.