#  Thomas J. Kane 

Faculty Director

Walter H. Gale Professor of Education and Economics, Harvard Graduate School of Education

Member, Yidan Prize Foundation Council of Luminaries

 

 

 



   ![tom_kane_2022_revised_pic_1.jpg](/sites/g/files/omnuum9881/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/cepr/files/tom_kane_2022_revised_pic_1.jpg?itok=tlqFqQid) 

 



 

 laptop\_windows [Faculty Profile ](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/faculty/thomas-kane) 

 

 



 

Thomas Kane is an economist, Walter H. Gale Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, member of the Yidan Prize Foundation Council of Luminaries, and faculty director of CEPR. Between 2009 and 2012, he directed the Measures of Effective Teaching project for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. His work, profiled in [Harvard Magazine](https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/03/harvard-education-tom-kane-school-reform), has spanned both K–12 and higher education, covering topics such as the design of school accountability systems, teacher recruitment and retention, financial aid for college, race-conscious college admissions and the earnings impacts of community colleges. From 1995 to 1996, Kane served as the senior economist for labor, education, and welfare policy issues within President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. From 1991 through 2000, he was a faculty member at the Kennedy School of Government. Kane has also been a professor of public policy at UCLA and has held visiting fellowships at the Brookings Institution and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Focus Areas
    
     [Postsecondary Access & Success](/focus-areas/postsecondary-access-and-success) [School Improvement & Redesign](/focus-areas/school-improvement-and-redesign) [Teacher Effectiveness](/focus-areas/teacher-effectiveness)
- ## Role
    
     [Leadership](/leadership) [Faculty](/faculty) [Harvard Faculty](/harvard-faculty) [Faculty Steering Committee](/steering-committee) [Staff](/core-staff)
- ## Projects
    
     [Access to Opportunity](/project-name/access-to-opportunity) [Long-Term Outcomes of Charter Schooling](/projects/long-term-outcomes-charter-schooling) [Best Foot Forward Project](/project-name/best-foot-forward-project) [Evaluation of Tennessee Pre-College Remedial Math Programs](/project-name/evaluation-tennessee-pre-college-remedial-math-programs) [National Center for Teacher Effectiveness](/projectname/national-center-teacher-effectiveness) [National Evaluation of Curriculum Effectiveness](/projects/national-evaluation-curriculum-effectiveness) [Newark Report](/projects/newark-report) [Partnering in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship](/projects/partnering-education-research-pier-fellowship) [Proving Ground](/projects/proving-ground) [Teaching Higher](/project-name/teaching-higher)