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Paul Reville is the Francis Keppel Professor of Practice of Educational Policy and Administration at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). He is the founding director of HGSE's EdRedesign Lab. In 2013, he completed nearly five years of service as the Secretary of Education for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As Governor Patrick's top education adviser, Reville established a new Executive Office of Education and had oversight of higher education, K-12, and early education in the nation's leading student achievement state. He served in the Governor's Cabinet and played a leading education reform role on matters ranging from the Achievement Gap Act of 2010 and Common Core State Standards to the Commonwealth's highly successful Race to the Top proposal.
Prior to joining the Patrick Administration, Reville chaired the Massachusetts State Board of Education, founded the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy, co-founded the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education (MBAE), chaired the Massachusetts Reform Review Commission, chaired the Massachusetts Commission on Time and Learning, and served as executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based Reform, a national think tank which convened the U.S.'s leading researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to set the national standards agenda. Reville played a central role in MBAE's development of and advocacy for Massachusetts historic Education Reform Act of 1993. Reville has been a member of the HGSE faculty since 1997 and has served as director of the Education Policy and Management Program.
Reville's career, which combines research, policy, and practice, began with service as a VISTA volunteer/youth worker. He served as a teacher and principal of two urban, alternative high schools. Some years later, he founded a local education foundation which was part of the Public Education Network. He is a board member and adviser to a host of organizations, including BELL, Match Education, Bellwether, City Year Boston, Harvard Medical School's MEDscience and others. He is a frequent writer and speaker on education reform and policy issues. He is also the educator commentator, Boston Public Radio, WGBH. He holds a B.A. from Colorado College, an M.A. from Stanford University and five honorary doctorate degrees.
The central shortcoming of American public education has been its failure to become the great equalizer. The evidence is clear: the dream of educational equity will never be realized without comprehensively addressing the racial and socioeconomic disparities that begin at birth and grow exponentially throughout life. The Education Redesign Lab (EdRedesign) at HGSE is tackling this reality head on through the establishment of an Institute for Success Planning. The Institute will marry two strategies: i) cross-sector collaborative action and ii) the personalization of supports for each child. Through the Institute, we aspire to be the national leader and field catalyst in promoting and propagating the use of Success Planning and personalized supports. Schools have been asked to remedy the lack of a social contract in the US. We know that two-thirds of the variance in educational attainment in the US is explained by out-of-school factors; all the places where kids grow and learn matternot just schools. Strides have been made to fix this. The collaborative action, cradleto-career field has produced glimmers of hope in places like Harlem and in communities across the country. At the same time, we have not been able to resolve the ironclad reality that socioeconomic status and race remain two of the leading determinants of social and economic outcomes in the wealthiest nation on earth. In response to the structural inequalities that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, significant federal resources through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) make bold action possible. Meeting this moment requires that our nation transition from the 20th centurys one-size-fits-all factory model of education to a 21st -century personalized approach. The universality of the pandemic, its disparate impact, and a growing consensus that we need a new vision for child well-being has provided us with the greatest opportunity to reimagine intergenerational mobility in the US since the Great Depression. The ARP has opened opportunities to bring new models to schools and communities. It is more important than ever that communities seize this opportunity in the most effective and impactful way possible. Implementing Success Planning is the avenue to this transformative change. Success Planning is a holistic process that connects students with supports and opportunities related to academics, health, and enrichment activities via a Navigator, a caring adult who compiles a childs diagnostic profile and then leverages the resources (i.e. tutoring, sports programs, health services, music lessons) and monitors the childs progress. Navigators get to know children and families while connecting them to the supports and opportunities they want and need to be successful in their community.
The final Askwith Education Forum of the academic year featured a standout panel of "cradle-to-career" innovators
HGSE panel offered advice for educators in divided times
Community-based leaders from around the country gathered at HGSE to share new ideas and guidance around closing the opportunity gap