Printer-friendly versionThe Board of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has named Anthony S. Bryk, whose work has informed and inspired school reform efforts, the next president of the Foundation, effective September 2008.
Bryk has held the Spencer Chair in Organizational Studies in the School of Education and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University since 2004. He came to Stanford from the University of Chicago where he was the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education in the sociology department, and where he helped found the Center for Urban School Improvement, which supports reform efforts in the Chicago Public Schools. Bryk also created the Consortium on Chicago School Research, a federation of research groups that has produced a range of studies to advance and assess urban school reform. His current research and practice interests focus on the organizational redesign of schools and school systems and the integration of technology into schooling to enhance teaching and learning.
"Tony is a perfect match for the Foundation," said David S. Tatel, the chairman of the Carnegie Board, and a United States Circuit Judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. "He has a tremendous ability to think and act across disciplines and to bring together theory and practice. I have no doubt that he will maintain Carnegie's rigorous intellectual standards, while further advancing its national presence."
Bryk is one of America's most noted educational researchers. His 1993 book, Catholic Schools and the Common Good, is a classic in the sociology of education. His deep interest in bringing scholarship to bear on improving schooling is reflected in his later volume, Trust in Schools, and in his numerous other inquiries with Chicago area colleagues on the progress of school reform in that city. In addition to his substantive studies of education, Bryk has made pioneering contributions to quantitative methods in social science research.
"Tony is a brilliant scholar," said Catharine R. Stimpson, the vice chairperson of the Carnegie Board, and the dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science at New York University. "Although he is best known for his work in K-12 schooling, he is deeply aware of Carnegie's traditional commitment to higher education, of the profound connections among educational activities from preschool through postdoctoral education, and of the relations between U.S. and international education."
Bryk was awarded the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Prize for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Scholarship by the Fordham Foundation in 2003, and received the American Educational Research Association's highest honor, the Distinguished Career Contributions Award in 2003. He is a member of the National Academy of Education. Bryk earned a doctorate in measurement and statistics from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and an undergraduate degree in chemistry from Boston College.
"I am delighted to be named the next president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching," Bryk said. "As was true a century ago when the Foundation first began, today we confront a transformative moment in education. Larger social, economic and technology forces are calling us to reinvent schooling—where students learn in different ways and to much higher standards, where teachers and students engage with new technologies as well as with deeper knowledge, and where all are prepared for work and life in a global society. What is needed is a serious transformation in the ways we develop and support our teachers, the tools, materials, ideas and evidence with which they work, and the organizational and institutional contexts in which all of this occurs.
"I welcome the opportunity to join with the Foundation Board in leveraging its resources in these endeavors and through partnership with others. Together, we seek to add another chapter in Carnegie's century-long efforts at institution building toward advancing the public good."
Established by Andrew Carnegie in 1905, the Carnegie Foundation's original charge was "to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education." Over the succeeding century, this focus on teaching, educational improvement, and reform has been reflected in the Foundation's pioneering and influential policy studies, research programs, and other programmatic initiatives.
The Foundation is an operating rather than a grant-making organization, with assets of approximately $125 million. It is governed by a board of trustees of up to 25 members. In an era when education is central to both individual and social progress, the Foundation and its president are dedicated to fostering positive change and enhanced learning in the nation's schools and postsecondary institutions.
Bryk will assume the presidency in September, following the retirement of Lee S. Shulman, who has led the Foundation with a deep sense of stewardship and vision since 1997.
Updated on June 3, 2008
