Cassidy Syftestad

• U of A
• Education Reform
• People
• Cassidy Syftestad

Cassidy Klutts

208 Graduate Education Building

College of Education and Health Professions

Fayetteville, AR 72701

ccsyftes@uark.edu

Cassidy is a Doctoral Academy Fellow and Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for Anthem Classical Academy in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and has a passion for fundraising. Cassidy graduated with honors from Hillsdale College with a B.A. in American Studies. She completed multiple internships in education policy, journalism, and programming, including a research position with the Center for Education Policy at the Heritage Foundation. After her undergraduate graduation, she managed a collegiate internship program for Hillsdale in Washington, D.C. and worked as an analyst for the Central California Intelligence Center. Her research interests include school choice, the propagation of civic values, classical Christian education, charter schools, and school finance. She has presented research on charter school funding, a case study on the founding of a private, classical Christian school, special education support methods as well as cross-sector enrollment trends throughout 2020. Her current work examines the growth of classical charter schools over the last decade and the impact of their enrollment on civic participation and knowledge.