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Martin West

Martin West
Current Position
Member
Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and William Henry Bloomberg Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education
Board Term
October 2019 - September 2026
Board Category
State School Board Member
Representative Board Activities
Vice Chair — Executive Committee
Member — Reporting and Dissemination Committee
Education
Ph.D. Harvard University – Government and Social Policy
M. Phil. University of Oxford – Economic and Social History
B.A. Williams College – History

Martin West is the academic dean and Henry Lee Shattuck professor of education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and editor-in-chief of Education Next, a journal of opinion and research on education policy. He is also deputy director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Dr. West is a political scientist who studies the politics of K-12 education in the United States and how education policies affect student learning and non-cognitive development. He previously worked as a senior advisor to Senator Lamar Alexander, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, taught at Brown University, and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution. Dr. West lives in Mass., with his wife and three sons.