Richard Murnane Named as Academic Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Acting Dean Designate Kathleen McCartney, Gerald S. Lesser Professor in Early Childhood Development, announced that Richard Murnane will serve a one-year term as academic dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education beginning July 1, 2005. Murnane is the Thompson Professor of Education & Society.

"Dick's tireless service to HGSE has been evident to all of us through the years," said McCartney. "I am so grateful that Dick is willing to put the needs of the school ahead of his own during this interim year."

Murnane is an economist whose research focuses on the relationships between education and the economy, teacher labor markets, the determinants of children's achievement, and strategies for making schools more effective. His most recent book, The New Division of Labor: How Computers Are Creating the Next Job Market, coauthored with MIT's Frank Levy, shows how the spread of information technology has increased the value of some human skills and decreased the value of others. It also explains how education and training programs need to respond to new labor market realities.