Martin West

Martin West
Martin West
Professor of Education,
Harvard University

Martin West studies the politics of K–12 education and how education policies affect student learning and social-emotional development. He is a professor at Harvard Graduate School of 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 deputy director of Harvard University’s Program on Education Policy and Governance as well as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. He previously worked as senior advisor to the 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. West received his PhD in government and social policy from Harvard University.

updated 2020

Publications by Martin West
Evidence from the CORE Districts
Mounting evidence demonstrates that social-emotional skills are important for students’ academic and life success, yet there is limited evidence on how these skills develop over time and how this development varies across student subgroups. This…
Findings from the First Large-Scale Panel Survey of Students
Measures of school-level growth in student outcomes are common tools used to assess the impacts of schools. The vast majority of these measures are based on standardized tests, even though emerging evidence demonstrates the importance of social-…
States and school districts across the U.S. are seeking to expand their definition of student success to include social-emotional learning. The CORE Districts, a collaborative of California districts that has developed a system of school…