Bio/Overview: Khachatryan is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University in the area of Curriculum Studies and Teacher Education. She entered the teaching profession to make learning fun and meaningful for students and chose to teach social studies in order to ensure that students from all backgrounds saw themselves in the fabric of our nation’s history. Khachatryan came to the Department as a 2010 Washington Fellow from Clark Magnet High School in Glendale, CA where she taught Government and U.S. History. Previously, she had taught Government, U.S. History and Economics at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles Unified.

Educational Values/Philosophy: Khachatryan believes in making learning meaningful and fun, and utilized project- and inquiry-based teaching methods in her classroom so that students had opportunities for authentic application of academic knowledge in real life situations. All educators must be trained and employ culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy, according to Khachatryan. To this end, ensuring equitable educational opportunities for all children is of utmost importance to her.

Leadership Experience: As an undergraduate, Khachatryan started the UCLA Chapter of the Student California Teachers Association, a statewide organization. Within a few years of teaching, she took on more leadership roles at her school. She began by coordinating her school’s Gifted and Talented Education student placement and evaluation system. Through this, she recruited these GATE students as tutors and initiated a school-wide peer tutorial program for at risk students. Khachatryan became adviser to a few student groups on campus and was involved in student activities. She was elected co-chair of the Social Science department, through which she led efforts to collaboratively create formative and interim assessments and use data to inform instruction. Khachatryan was asked to join her school's Instructional Leadership Team.  In this capacity, she participated in the decision making of her school for two years, especially having to do with data collection and analysis, assessments, and professional development.

Affiliations: American Educational Research Association, UCLA Center X, Stanford History Education Group, Stanford Teacher Education Research Group, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Society for History Education, California Teachers Association, California Council for the Social Studies.

Education: Khachatryan received her Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Education Studies in 2003 from UCLA, as well as her teaching credential and first Master's degree in Education two years later. Her first master’s research dealt with interdisciplinary teaching. Upon completing her fifth year of teaching, Khachatryan also earned her administrative credential and her second Master's degree from UCLA. This research involved marginalization of English Learners and immigrants. Currently a Ph.D. student at Stanford, Khachatryan is interested in how feedback on teaching impacts performance.

Areas of Interest/Expertise:

• Social Justice
• Culturally Relevant Pedagogy
• Assessments of teaching
• Formative and Interim Assessments
• Professional development
• Public Policy

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