Josh Almes

Josh Almes is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. Almes studies spatial inequities caused and reinforced by education policies. Almes’ work applies critical geography frameworks to education systems, such as how the drawing of school district boundary lines create disparate financial realities for districts and communities.

Josh’s research examines educational inequities through a spatial lens, as seen in his dissertation research, where he analyzed the way Pennsylvania school districts are drawn in comparison to algorithmically constructed counterfactual geometries.

Almes served as a high school social studies teacher for ten years in rural western Pennsylvania before pursuing a doctorate in Education Leadership and Policy at Penn State University. Josh also examines issues surrounding collective bargaining rights of educators, access to professional development and tuition reimbursement, as well as how rural areas navigate community development.