Inequality and Academic Achievement

Sean Reardon is the endowed Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education at Stanford University. A quantitative sociologist of education, his research focuses on the causes, patterns, trends, and consequences of social and educational inequality, and the effects of educational policy on educational and social inequality. His scholarship can be thought of as “educational epidemiology”; it has provided new insights on racial and socioeconomic segregation, academic achievement gaps, and other dimensions of educational inequality. Professor Reardon’s best-known work of this type is a 2011 study demonstrating the rapid increase in the achievement gap between children from high- and low-income families over the last 30 years. In other research he investigates how educational policies and practices shape and/or reduce educational and social inequality.
Professor Reardon received his doctorate in education in 1997 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to graduate school, he taught high school for four years, including two years at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, current vice president of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, and has received numerous academic honors and awards.
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Professor Reardon received his doctorate in education in 1997 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to graduate school, he taught high school for four years, including two years at Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, current vice president of the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, and has received numerous academic honors and awards.
View Ed-Talk Factsheet here.