Department of Education

Dr. Matthew Kraft is a Professor of Education and Economics at Brown University, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow with IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, and an Invited Researcher at J-PAL North America. His research focuses on two primary areas: improving the effectiveness of K-12 educators and schools, and examining how education systems can adapt to and mitigate climate change. He has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in leading education, economics, and public policy journals on topics such as teacher hiring, professional development, evaluation, and working conditions; new approaches to interpreting effect sizes in education research; and efforts to scale school-based tutoring and mentoring programs. His research has received over $5.8 million in grant funding from a range of federal agencies and private foundations and has been cited over 14,000 times. In 2024-2025, he served on the White House Council of Economic Advisers as a Senior Economist.

Matt is the recipient of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Outstanding Public Communication Award, the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Early Career Award, the William T. Grant Scholar Award, the Brown University Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award for the most outstanding article across the seven flagship AERA journals, and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. His research is frequently featured in national news outlets and he is consistently ranked among the top 200 scholars on the Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings. He holds a doctorate in Quantitative Policy Analysis in Education from Harvard University as well as an M.A. in International Comparative Education and a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University. He currently serves as an elected member of the Belmont (MA) school committee. Previously, he taught middle and high school humanities in Oakland and Berkeley (CA) public schools.