GSE’s Dynamic New Dean

As an academic leader and scholar of education, incoming Dean of the Graduate School of Education (GSE) Ellen Condliffe Lagemann brings impressive credentials to one of Harvard’s most often overlooked schools. Her aggressive recruitment by University President Lawrence H. Summers bodes well for top administrative appointments in the future.

Lagemann comes to Harvard with many years of experience and leadership in educational research. She currently serves as president of the Spencer Foundation, a Chicago-based group that supports education research, and from 1994 to 2000 she directed New York University’s (NYU) Center for the Study of American Culture and Education. She chaired NYU’s humanities and social sciences department during that same period, a testament to her academic breadth. Such breadth is essential as the GSE looks toward more interdisciplinary work, and we hope that she will extend interdisciplinary initiatives to include undergraduates interested in education.

Her appointment is also encouraging as a step toward more gender balance at the top rungs of University leadership. For the first time in history, with Lagemann at the GSE and Drew Gilpin Faust at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, two Harvard schools will be headed by women. Nevertheless, that only two deans are women shows that better gender representation must remain a top University priority.

Summers’ instrumental role in recruiting Lagemann demonstrates well his skill in drawing the best administrative candidates to Harvard. Lagemann describes Summers’ aggressive pitch as central to her acceptance, saying, “Summers first argued me into thinking about becoming dean, and then bowled me over with his ideas for the school and his unprecedented promises to help.” It is, of course, crucial that Summers continue his personal role in attracting the best people to top posts.

His attention to the GSE dean search also signals new hope for the educatio school itself which, currently suffers from a less prominent reputation than others in the University. As Lagemann points out, educational scholarship must gain respect if it is to make positive change in education nationwide.