Education and economic development, racial achievement gaps
Activities & Honors:
Ronald Ferguson is an economist and Senior Research Associate at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy and has taught at Harvard since 1983. His teaching and publications cover a variety of issues related to education and economic development. Much of his research since the mid-1990s has focused on racial achievement gaps, appearing in publications of the National Research Council, the Brookings Institution, and the U.S. Department of Education, in addition to various books and scholarly journals. He participates in a variety of consulting and policy advisory activities, including work with school districts on closing achievement gaps. He is the creator and Director of the Tripod Project for School Improvement and is also the Faculty Co-Chair and Director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. Ferguson earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a PhD from MIT, both in economics.
Selected Publications:
• Ferguson, Ronald. (Summer 2007). Become More Sophisticated about Diversity. NSDC Journal of Staff Development 28(3).
• Ferguson, Ronald. (Spring-Summer 2007). Parenting Practices, Teenage Lifestyles, and Academic Achievement among African American Children. Focus: University of Wisconsin-Madison Institute for Research on Poverty, pp. 18-26.
• Ferguson, Ronald. (2007). Toward Excellence with Equity: The Role of Parenting and Transformative School Reform. The Price We Pay: Economic and Social Consequences of Inadequate Education. In C. R. Belfield and H. M. Levin (Eds.), pp. 225-254. Brookings Institution Press.
• Ferguson, Ronald. (2007). Afterword: Opportunity Now: Raising Achievement in Spite of Structural Impediments. The Opportunity Gap: Achievement and Inequality in Education. In C. D. da Silva, J. P. Huguley, Z. Kakli, and R. Rao (Eds.), pp. 321-326. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
• Ferguson, Ronald. (2007). Toward Excellence with Equity: An Emerging Vision for Closing the Achievement Gap. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
• Ferguson, Ronald. (2006). Research Brief: New Evidence on Why Black High Schoolers Get Accused of 'Acting White.' Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University.
• Ferguson, Ronald. (Fall 2006). Five Challenges to Effective Teacher Professional Development: School Leaders Can Improve Instruction by Addressing these Issues. Journal of Staff Development 27, 4.
