Kane to Serve on Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Education Team

The Harvard Graduate School of Education announced today that Professor Thomas Kane will serve as a deputy director of education for US Program at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Kane will remain Professor of Education and Economics and continue his work as faculty director of the Project for Policy Innovation in Education.

Kane, a nationally-recognized education policy expert, will lead the foundation's research efforts in education to help achieve the goal of ensuring all students graduate high school ready for the challenges of college and the workplace. He has been serving as an advisor to the foundation since January. Since 2000, the foundation has invested $2 billion in innovative school models, improved systems for data and accountability, and school district efforts.

"Tom is uniquely suited to assist the Gates Foundation as they develop a strategy for investments in education research," said Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education. "His work in the field has greatly influenced America's efforts to strengthen education policy -- from teacher recruitment and retention to financial aid in higher education. Through his outstanding work with the foundation and here at Harvard, Tom will continue to improve education for all young people."

In their work at the Project for Policy Innovation in Education, Kane and his colleagues have been working with school districts around the country, using data to evaluate hiring and certification policies for teachers, public school choice systems, and the effect of charter and pilot schools on student outcomes. In his work at the foundation, he hopes to build on that experience, encouraging more districts and states to begin to use data to evaluate programs and policies.

"The stockpile of student achievement data accumulating in school districts and states is a valuable national resource, one that holds promise for reinventing the way education research is done," said Kane. "The Gates Foundation is committed to using those data to learn what's working and what's not. We cannot make the rapid progress we seek without continuously learning from our efforts. Vicki Phillips is assembling a terrific team in Seattle--one that I'm honored to be a part of."

"Tom's work and his leadership in education have helped transform America's mindset when it comes to improving our schools, supporting teachers, and raising student achievement," said Vicki L. Phillips, director of the foundation's education division. "He'll make sure we're getting our facts right, asking the right questions, and taking the right steps to put all students on the path to success."

Kane will remain on faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where he has been a professor and faculty director of the Project for Policy Innovation in Education since 2005. He has previously served as a faculty member at the Harvard Kennedy School and as a professor of public policy at the University of California at Los Angeles. He has held visiting fellowships at the Brookings Institution and the Hoover Institution at Stanford. During the Clinton Administration, he was a senior staff economist with the president's Council of Economic Advisors.