Martin West

Martin West is the academic dean and Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, editor-in-chief of Education Next, and deputy director of the Program on Education Policy and Governance at the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and the National Assessment Governing Board. His research focuses on the politics of K–12 education in the United States and how education policies affect student learning and non-cognitive development. Previously, he was a senior education policy advisor to the ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, taught at Brown University, and was a research fellow at the Brookings Institution, where he is now a nonresident senior fellow. West earned his PhD in government and social policy from Harvard University.

updated 2025