Rucker Johnson, the chancellor’s professor of public policy, was announced Feb. 20 as having been elected to the National Academy of Education, or NAEd.
The NAEd advances high-quality research and administers professional development programs, according to Maria Gahan, NAEd director of professional development programs. Its mission is to improve education policies and practices and to bolster the preparedness of future education scholars.
“Being elected to the NAEd is one of the most prestigious honors that a scholar of education research can receive,” Gahan said in an email.
As a labor economist specializing in the economics of education, Johnson’s work examines how poverty and inequality affect life opportunities. Johnson said he strives to forward his scholarly agenda by combining a variety of disciplinary perspectives in order to inform on the causes and consequences of and solutions for inequality in the United States.
On campus, Johnson teaches graduate and undergraduate classes in applied econometrics and relevant courses on poverty, race and inequality.
NAEd members serve on committees and study panels to address issues in education, according to Gahan. She added that members also assist with the NAEd’s professional development programs, which aim to prepare future scholars.
Nominees for this honor are leaders in policy or scholars who have shaped and continue to advocate for the field of education, Gahan added in the email.
Johnson specifically studied the results of school desegregation in the 1960s and 1970s, the impacts of the federal Head Start program and the effects of school finance reforms that equalized funding among schools, according to Gahan.
The NAEd recognized Johnson’s studies, which involved surveying 15,000 children born between 1955 and 1985, as illustrating the impact of large-scale equity-based educational and social policies.
“His work is arguably the most significant new work on the role of social and educational policy in reducing economic inequality,” Gahan said in the email.
Johnson is also the author of the book “Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works,” and he considers it one of his most valuable contributions to his field.
Major academic journals and mainstream media outlets have featured Johnson’s research, and the White House and Capitol Hill have invited him to deliver policy briefings, according to Gahan.
Gahan noted that these accolades display his commitment to and leadership role in the education field, which helped secure his nomination as a member of the NAEd.
Johnson said this election is his opportunity to advance his work in education policy on a larger scale.
“It’s such a wonderful honor to be inducted to a group of distinguished scholars whose work inspired so much of my own,” Johnson said in an email. “As a 3rd generation educator, my parents instilled the belief in me at an early age that high quality schools are a gateway to lifelong success.”
Contact Amanda McNamara at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @amandamcnamara_uc.
