Douglas N. Harris

Dr. Douglas Harris is a nonresident Senior Fellow in the Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings. Harris is also a professor of economics, the Schleider Foundation chair in public education, and founding director of the Education Research Alliance for New Orleans (ERA-New Orleans) at Tulane University. He has advised governors, members of Congress, and White House staff on a variety of policies: test-based accountability for teachers and schools, value-added measures, charter schools and market-based reforms, and college access. Currently his work with ERA-New Orleans focuses on the unprecedented post-Katrina school reforms and the role of charter schools. He is also conducting a large IES-funded randomized trial of a “promise scholarship” in Milwaukee. “Value-Added Measures in Education” (Harvard Education Press, 2011), his first book, was nominated for the national Grawemeyer prize in education and praised by national leaders such as Randi Weingarten and Bill Gates. The Washington Monthly college rankings have incorporated his work (with Robert Kelchen) about value-added at the higher education level. National media, including CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, the Washington Post, National Journal, and The Wall Street Journal, and by commentators such as David Brooks and Malcolm Gladwell regularly cite his work. He is also a former school board member and husband and parent of two wonderful daughters.

Outside of Brookings, Harris formerly provided informal counsel to the Biden Team.