George Farkas

George Farkas is distinguished professor emeritus in the School of Education at the University of California, Irvine. He was previously a professor of sociology, demography, and education at Pennsylvania State University, where he also director of the Statistics Core for the Population Research Institute. His research examines the school achievement gap for low-income and ethnic minority students, applying statistical approaches to analyze its causes, consequences, and early emergence in childhood. He has also studied students’ learning-related behaviors, cognitive skill development, and gender differences, with a focus on life cycle earnings and quasi-experimental statistical methods. He developed Reading One-to-One, a tutoring program that served as a model for President Clinton’s America Reads initiative and has been widely implemented. A fellow of the American Educational Research Association and a member of the Sociological Research Association, Farkas has served as president of the Sociological Research Association, editor of the Rose Monograph Series, and associate editor of AERA Open. Farkas earned his BA in mathematics from Columbia University and a PhD in sociology from Cornell University.

updated 2025