New Education Dean To Raise School Profile

The new dean of one of Harvard’s most overlooked graduate school has big plans for the future of the Graduate School of Education (GSE).

University President Lawrence H. Summers lured Ellen Condliffe Lagemann to the post this month with promises of unprecedented funding and support—and while neither will elaborate on what exactly those promises will amount to in future years, the issues facing the school are clear.

Despite a recent capital campaign that boosted the number of faculty, GSE needs money and space, and administrators say that the future of the school depends on its ability to raise its profile and develop joint programs with other parts of Harvard.

Lagemann, the first dean to be appointed by Summers and Harvard’s third female dean, is no stranger to the field of education.

“She brings a breadth of passion for education and educational research,” says Judith D. Singer, who has served as co-acting dean of GSE for the past year.

A longtime professor at New York University and Columbia’s Teachers’ College, Lagemann comes to GSE from the Spencer Foundation, the nation’s largest educational research foundation.

“The unquestioned respect by which she is held by colleagues in the field of education and her capacity to articulate how GSE should be different from other schools of education will make GSE a leader among schools,” says Shattuck Professor of Education Catherine E. Snow, who served on the committee that advised Summers on the dean search.

While the two GSE deans preceding Lagemann were appointed from within, Lagemann’s colleagues are quick to point out the perks of her coming from outside of the University.

“It’s good to have someone say, ‘why do you do things this way?’” Singer says. “At Harvard, sometimes the answer is ‘well it’s always been done this way.’ She brings a new perspective.”

Lagemann, for her part, says that she won’t take anything for granted as she spends her first weeks and months learning about GSE and meeting with students, faculty and administrators.

Although her job does not officially start until July 15, Lagemann is scheduled to visit the campus next week and again in mid-June. The biggest issues facing GSE, though, are clear.

Money Matters

Lagemann’s simplistic description of the difference between her current and future jobs sum up perhaps the biggest challenge that lies ahead of her.

“At the Spencer Foundation, I give away money,” she says. “At Harvard, I’m going to need to raise money.”

Lagemann and GSE’s two acting deans—Singer and John B. Willett—all stress the need for fundraising at a school where graduates tend to earn less than graduates from other professional schools like the Medical, Law or Business Schools.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” Willett says. “The debt for students is hard to pay off, and people who graduate from here don’t earn much. [Therefore] alumni can’t increase our endowment, and then we’re short of financial aid.”

Although officials refuse to release details, this could be where Summers’ promises come in. Lagemann says that Summers has pledged “financial and personal support” to GSE, including a willingness to identify new donors and help with the school’s fundraising.

“Without getting into specifics, I have already enhanced support from central funds for financial aid at the School of Education, and I have made it clear to Ellen that she will receive both fundraising and programmatic support as she works to focus more sharply the mission of the school and further enhance the quality of the student body,” Summers says in a statement.

Although former GSE Dean Jerome T. “Jerry” Murphy, who served from 1992 to 2000, raised $110 million, that money went primarily to endow chairs for faculty members—the school stills struggles to provide financial aid within its meager budget.

Willett and Singer, who have published several books together and who shared the position of academic dean, only agreed to become the acting deans after former University President Neil L. Rudenstine pledged $6 million to the school over a five-year period to increase financial aid for doctoral students.

The school has long worked to increase doctoral student financial aid since doctoral students stay at GSE for six to seven years, while masters’ students only stay for one.

Since GSE admits 600 masters in education student and only 60 doctoral candidates annually, Singer says that Rudenstine’s aid has put GSE in “much better shape.”

But Willett adds that “financial aid is still an important issue” and that GSE now needs to focus on masters’ students.

Improving Research

Boosting GSE’s budget and endowment will also help in Lagemann’s quest to raise the school’s voice and presence both within Harvard and the larger educational community.

GSE needs to expand the scope of its research efforts and publicize its current efforts better, according to Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education Howard E. Gardner ’65.

“I would like to see research of high quality, drawing on cognitive and brain sciences, and identification of best practices based on solid research,” says Gardner, who also serve on Summers’ advisory committee during the dean search.

Lagemann also hopes for an increase in the communication of the research to the public.

Administrators say that Lagemann is exactly the right person to boost the school’s research efforts into the varying roles of educators—as teachers, administrators and policy makers.

Summers says that Lagemann is “a leader in the effort to convert high-quality academic research into usable tools to improve teaching and learning in the nation’s public schools.”

Lagemann’s role will be to facilitate such research and push faculty to reach out to the greater educational community.

“One of the most important roles that a school of education can play is to be deeply involved in educating the public about education,” Lagemann says. “GSE has a wonderful faculty, and their voices and insights need to become part of the national debate on education even more than they already are.”

Joining Forces

Expanding research is only the beginning of raising GSE ’s profile.

Lagemann says that she would like to see the school develop more joint programs with Harvard’s graduate schools and the College.

Singer and Willett say that GSE has already begun to address this goal by including representatives from several graduate schools on the committee that advised Summers during the dean search.

A good place to start the interfaculty cooperation would be to enable GSE doctoral students—candidates for a doctor in education (Ed.D.)—to earn a doctor in philosophy (Ph.D.), Willett says.

He says GSE is the “only major graduate school of education not to offer the Ph.D.,” a fact which must change in order for GSE to compete with other top schools.

Current GSE students cannot earn Ph.D.s since historically the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences has been the only school permitted to award a Ph.D., according to Singer.

“Our students are doing Ph.D. quality work but getting Ed.D. because of the way the University is structured,” she says.

Lagemann has plans beyond working with Harvard graduate schools—she also wants GSE to inform undergraduates about education, by offering forums for them and inviting them to attend GSE classes.

“I hope we can get more Harvard undergraduates to become teachers, principals and superintendents,” she says.

Learning about education, Lagemann adds, is important even for those who do not plan a career in the field.

“All of the undergraduates will be taxpaying citizens, and many will be parents, so the state of public education is vitally important to them,” she says.

New Faces, New Places?

Lagemann’s ambitious agenda won’t come cheaply—and it won’t come easily to a school sandwiched on Appian Way between Radcliffe and a cemetery.

Singer and Willett lament how squeezed for space GSE has become in recent years and how it has been forced to rent space around Harvard Square.

While final decisions are still years away, administrators have said that it is likely GSE might take up residence in Harvard’s land holdings in Allston. Even if GSE itself doesn’t move, the movement of other schools will free up land for GSE in its present location.

Lagemann says that wherever the spaces come from, she’s anxious to have it.

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.