Katie Kilian is a researcher at the Institute of Education (IOE), University College London’s Faculty of Education and Society. She also works on education engagement and development with UCL’s Grand Challenge of Data Empowered Societies. Her research explores how education policy aimed at improving urban schools labelled ‘underperforming’ impacts on students and educators. Her research focuses on the relationship between policies, classroom practices and inequities, particularly related to ‘race’, class, migration and dis/ability. She has also worked on research on Ofsted inspections, decolonising research ethics, careers readiness with widening participation students, neurodivergent students in higher education, science policy capacity-building with early and mid-career researchers, and artificial intelligence and digital transformation.