Nonie K. Lesaux

Nonie K. Lesaux is the Roy E. Larsen Professor of Education and Human Development at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). She leads a research program on strategies and innovations to improve learning opportunities and literacy outcomes for children and youth. Her teaching focuses on literacy development and reform, early learning, and leading system-level change.

Lesaux works largely through partnerships with school districts, states, and communities. In school districts, Lesaux investigates language, reading, and social-emotional development; classroom quality and academic growth; and strategies to accelerate language and reading comprehension. In states and communities, she brings tools and concepts from improvement science to strengthen literacy plans and policy initiatives, grade-level reading campaigns, and birth-to-eight early learning initiatives. Her research-practice partnerships with large urban school districts, to improve literacy rates, include seven years with San Diego Unified and ten years with the New York City Department of Education.

With Stephanie Jones, Lesaux leads the Saul Zaentz Early Education Initiative at HGSE, which addresses the pervasive global challenge of simultaneously scaling and improving the quality of early education. Anchored by a first-of-its-kind large-scale study to inform a new era of science and policymaking in early education, and a new model of capacity-building for leaders, the Initiative’s network and partnerships represent all 50 U.S. states and 92 countries.

Lesaux’s research appears in numerous scholarly publications, and its practical applications are featured in several books for school leaders and educators. She is co-editor of the Handbook of Reading Research (2022) and wrote a widely circulated state literacy report, Turning the Page: Refocusing Massachusetts for Reading Success, that inspired a third-grade reading proficiency bill passed in Massachusetts.

Lesaux has earned the William T. Grant Scholars Award and the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor given by the U.S. government to young professionals beginning their independent research careers. She served on the U.S. Department of Education’s Reading First Advisory Committee and the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council’s Committee on the Science of Children Birth to Age 8. From 2015 to 2022, Lesaux chaired the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care, which oversees the state agency that licenses and supports childcare and community-based public programs for young children. Lesaux is a member of the National Academy of Education and the board of the Spencer Foundation. She is expert consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Educational Opportunities Section.