The Futures of School Reform: Who's Who

A national working group on the “Futures of School Reform.”

The Futures of School Reform: Who's Who


Anthony S. Bryk is the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Stanford, Calif., where he leads work on bringing to life the research and development infrastructure for improving teaching and learning. The foundation is now focusing on building networked communities to strengthen developmental mathematics instruction in community colleges and to strengthen the systems of learning and support for the development and retention of effective new teachers.

Elizabeth A. City is the executive director of the Doctor of Education Leadership Program and lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her recent publications include Strategy in Action: How School Systems Can Support Powerful Learning and Teaching, co-authored with Rachel E. Curtis (Harvard Education Press, 2009) and Instructional Rounds in Education: A Network Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning, co-authored with Richard F. Elmore, Sarah E. Fiarman, and Lee Teitel (Harvard Education Press, 2009).

Richard F. Elmore teaches graduate students preparing for leadership roles in teaching and administration in schools at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He spends one day each week in classrooms in greater Boston, and he is a novice watercolorist.

Adam Gamoran is the MacArthur Professor of Sociology and Educational Policy Studies and the director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His co-edited works include Methodological Advances in Cross-National Surveys of Educational Achievement (National Academies Press, 2002) and Stratification in Higher Education: A Comparative Study (Stanford University Press, 2007).

Dan D. Goldhaber is the director of the Center for Education Data & Research (CEDR) at the University of Washington-Bothell. His work focuses on issues of educational productivity and reform at the K–12 level, with a current focus on the broad array of human-capital policies that influence the composition, distribution, and quality of teachers in the workforce. Examples of his work can be found at www.CEDR.us.

Michael A. Goldstein is the founder of MATCH Charter School and MATCH Teacher Residency, a specialized teacher-preparation initiative. He also helped to launch a 2010 pilot project to deploy 250 full-time math tutors in nine Houston turnaround schools (as part of the Apollo 20 Project). He serves, or has served, on various advisory boards, including the Boston Schoolchildren’s Consortium, the National Council for Teacher Quality, and transition teams for Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and Gov. Mitt Romney.

Louis M. Gomez is the Helen S. Faison Professor of Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh and senior partner at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching in Stanford, Calif. His work focuses on tools and organizational arrangements that promote educational improvement.

Greg M. Gunn is an education-technology entrepreneur and venture capitalist. He is a venture partner at City Light Capital, a New York-based firm focused on impact investing, and prior to that was the co-founder of Wireless Generation, a leading educational software company.


Jeffrey R. Henig is a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. His recent book, Spin Cycle: How Research Is Used in Policy Debates, The Case of Charter Schools (Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2008), won the American Educational Research Association’s Outstanding Book Award in 2010.

Frederick M. Hess is the director of education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and pens the Education Week blog Rick Hess Straight Up. A former high school teacher and college professor, he has authored books including The Same Thing Over and Over (Harvard University Press, 2010) and Education Unbound (ASCD, 2010).

Paul T. Hill is the John and Marguerite Corbally Professor and director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington-Bothell. His latest book is Learning as We Go: Why School Choice Is Worth the Wait (Hoover Institution Press, 2010).

Ben Levin holds a Canada Research Chair in Education Policy and Leadership at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He is also a former deputy minister of education for the provinces of Manitoba and Ontario, Canada.


Susanna Loeb is a professor of education at Stanford University, the faculty director of the Center for Education Policy Analysis, and a co-director of Policy Analysis for California Education. Her research focuses on education policy, particularly policies affecting the teaching and school leadership workforce.

Doug Lynch is vice dean at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.



Helen Janc Malone is an advanced doctoral candidate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the project manager for the Futures of School Reform initiative. Her upcoming edited volume Expanded Learning Time and Opportunities is due out in the fall (Jossey-Bass).

Olivia M. Meeks is a research assistant in education policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute and an honors graduate of the University of Arkansas. Her research focuses on collective bargaining, customized schooling, and educational technology, and she is a co-author of the 2011 National School Boards Association report, "School Boards Circa 2010: Governance in the Accountability Era."

Jal D. Mehta is an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is finishing up a manuscript, Between Justice and Order, about repeated efforts to rationalize American schooling across the 20th century, and is currently working on a book, The Chastened Dream, about the evolving relationship between social science, social policy, and social progress.

Terry M. Moe is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a member of the Koret Task Force on K-12 Education. His most recent books are Special Interest: Teachers Unions and America's Public Schools (Brookings Institution Press, forthcoming April 2011) and Liberating Learning: Politics, Technology, and the Future of American Education with John Chubb (Jossey-Bass, 2009).

S. Paul Reville is the Massachusetts secretary of education, and, in that role, directs the executive office of education and works closely with the commonwealth’s education agencies and the University of Massachusetts system while serving as a voting member of the governing board of all four state education agencies. He is the governor’s top adviser on education and helps shape the state's education reform agenda, including the recent Achievement Gap Act of 2010.

Robert B. Schwartz is the academic dean and Francis Keppel Professor of Practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He has played a variety of roles in education and government over the past four decades, including high school teacher and principal, foundation officer, and president of Achieve Inc. in Washington.



The above individuals are contributing Commentaries to the Education Week series. Other members of The Futures of School Reform working group who have participated in at least one meeting and shaped the thinking and discussions of the group are: Larry Berger, chief executive officer, Wireless Generation; Stacey Childress, deputy director of education, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Paul Goren, Lewis-Sebring director, Consortium on Chicago School Research; Kaya Henderson, acting chancellor, District of Columbia Public Schools; Michael Johnston, Colorado state senator, District 33; Brad Jupp, senior program adviser for teacher quality initiatives, U.S. Department of Education; John King, deputy commissioner of education, New York State Department of Education; Mark Moore, Herbert A. Simon professor, Harvard Graduate School of Education; Andrew Rotherham, co-founder and partner, Bellwether Education Partners; Stefanie Sanford, director of U.S. program advocacy and policy, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Marshall “Mike” Smith, former senior adviser to the U.S. secretary of education, U.S. Department of Education; James Spillane, Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin professor of learning and organizational change, Northwestern University; and Dacia Toll, co-CEO and president, Achievement First. The Commentaries appearing in Education Week reflect the views of their authors and not the group as a whole.

A version of this article appeared in the March 30, 2011 edition of Education Week