The Ed School's Dean Graham Leaves a Legacy of Innovation

Dean of the Graduate School of Education Patricia A. Graham surprised many education professors at Harvard and elsewhere when she announced her resignation last week.

Her successor, professors say, will face dual challenges. First, a new dean will need to continue Graham's precedent of innovation and development. And in doing so, he or she must struggle to gain greater University support for one of Harvard's least-known and least-wealthy graduate schools.

Graham, who will remain at Harvard as a part-time professor, will also assume the presidency of the Spenser Foundation, a Chicago-based research institution that provides $8 to $10 million in education-related grants per year. The job is recognized as one of the nation's most influential education positions.

But Graham is no stranger to influential positions. Education leaders say that Graham's nine years here have made a definite impact, not only on the School of Education, but also on national trends in education. Colleagues have praised Graham's ability to fuse research and practice in the field of education, as well as her initiative in shifting the Education School's focus back to the classroom.

Administrative Dean Joel C. Monnell praises Graham for "getting the school of education back closer to what's going on in the schools."

Graham's colleagues are quick to cite her accomplishments, which include: strengthening the school's senior faculty by securing the tenure of nine professors, including Sara Lawrence Lightfoot, Carol Gilligan and Howard E. Gardner.

In addition, Graham developed a number of training programs, many of them unique to the School of Education. The Undergraduate Teacher Education Program (UTEP), allows undergraduates to earn Massachusetts State Teacher's Certification while working towards their bachelor's degrees.

She also created the Urban Superintendent's program--a three-year doctoral training program which works to fill positions in city school systems. And her innovative Mid-Career Math and Science program helps career scientists make the transition into public school teaching.

"That's going to be a very important development throughout the nation during the next 10 years," Columbia University School for Teachers President Michael Timpane said of the Mid-Career program last week.

The same can be said of many of Graham's initiatives. Under Graham's tutelage, the Ed School has risen in stature and has come to be recognized as one of the nation's leading education institutions.

"She made Harvard a national center in the development of educational leadership for the coming decade," Timpane said last week.

The Education School's national reputation however, does not parallel its prestige within the University. The School of Education is often forced to take a back seat to higher-profile graduate schools, such as the Law School, the Medical School and the Kennedy School of Government.

Professor of Education Nathan Glazer last week called the Education School "a school that has a low profile and low prestige at Harvard."

Graham worked during her tenure to dispel that image, and met with some success.

"One of the legacies Pat Graham has left is her ability to bring to the attention of the University as a whole the contributions of the school of education, and the need of the school of education for broader support," says Academic Dean Catherine E. Snow.

Quest for Funding

But Graham's successor will need to continue the struggle. As the leader of the graduate school with the smallest endowment in the University, one of the new dean's main tasks will be the continued quest for greater funding.

"There will continue to be a financial challenge," says Monnell. "We have always run on a tight budget. We're under-endowed. We have the lowest endowment per student on any faculty at Harvard."

Monnell says that financial aid for students is a much-needed resource that the Ed School is lacking.

"We're still heavily tuition-dependent," he says.

The new dean will need to convince University administrators of the importance of educational issues, and prompt them to reevaluate the school's funding relative to that of other graduate schools, says Snow, who calls the Ed School's financial state "perilous."

This recognition, and the subsequent shift in administrative attitude toward the Ed School, may be easier to achieve as education becomes a higher priority for major universities across the country.

"Higher education is more and more concerned, both for its own sake and for the sake of the country," Ford Professor of Social Sciences Emeritus David Riesman '31 said last week.

For this reason, Graham's successor may meet with greater success in procuring monetary support from the University's new President.

Snow says that though Bok has been receptive to the Ed School's requests, there is still much more to be gained.

"He's been very generous in the last ten years compared to the University's level of generosity before that," Snow says. "Despite that generosity, he has not equalized the situation of the school of education and other richer faculties."

Both Snow and Morell say that massive fundraising may be in order if Bok's successor is not receptive to the Ed School's further requests.

Graham's successor, who will probably be chosen by the next president of Harvard, will have the benefit of working with a solid foundation of programs and a respected faculty.

Graham has "built some things here that will last a while," Morrell says.