Anthony S. Bryk, Paul E. Peterson, and E.D. Hirsch Jr. are the recipients of the first of what will be annual Fordham Prizes for Excellence in Education, sponsored by the Washington-based Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Each award carries a cash prize of $25,000.
Mr. Bryk and Mr. Peterson are each receiving the Fordham Prize for Distinguished Scholarship.
Mr. Bryk, 54, is a professor of urban education at the University of Chicago and the director of the university’s Center for School Improvement. He also founded the independent Consortium on Chicago School Research and serves as its senior director. As the Center for School Improvement’s director, Mr. Bryk led the design effort for the North Kenwood/Oakland Charter School, a 325-pupil, pre-K-8 school.
Mr. Peterson, 62, is a professor of government at Harvard University, and the editor of Education Next, a quarterly magazine published jointly by Harvard and the Fordham Foundation. Author of Earning and Learning: How Schools Matter, Lessons From School Choice, and six other books, Mr. Peterson is known for his research on vouchers and their impact on academic achievement.
Mr. Hirsch, 74, is the recipient of the Fordham Prize for Valor, which recognizes leadership in education reform. He is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Virginia, and the president of the Core Knowledge Foundation, which he founded in 1986. The Charlottesville, Va.-based nonprofit organization develops books and materials for parents and teachers and grade-specific core curricula for grades K-8. About 750 schools in 47 states use the Core Knowledge curriculum. Mr. Hirsch is the author of Cultural Literacy and The Schools We Need and Why We Don’t Have Them.
Catherine A. Carroll
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