Her research focuses on the relationship between education and social stratification. She received a Masters of Education in International Education Policy from Harvard University in 2007 and a Ph.D. in Sociology of Education from New York University in 2014. Ford is the co-editor of a reader now in its third edition: The Structure of Schooling: Readings in the Sociology of Education. Her work has appeared in the Teachers College Record Online, Education Leadership, and Research & Practice in Assessment. Ford's research interests are Higher Education, Sociology of Education, International Comparative Education, Institutional Variation, and Educational Assessment.