Spencer Foundation Lectureship
About the Spencer Foundation Award
The APPAM Policy Council approved this award on April 8, 2005. The Spencer Foundation Lecture, awarded biennually, recognizes noteworthy contributions through research and analysis in the field of education policy and management. Funding for the award comes from the Spencer Foundation, created by Lyle M. Spencer in 1962 to "investigate ways in which education, broadly conceived, can be improved around the world."
Any body of work will be considered, although the selection committee may, from time to time, decide to establish time limits for what may be considered. The selection committee may decide not to make an award in any particular year. The selection committee for the lecture consists of three people appointed by APPAM and two persons appointed by the Spencer Foundation. The 2019 Spencer Award Committee was comprised of Matt Stagner (Mathematica), Rebecca Maynard (University of Pennsylvania), Susan Dynarski (University of Michigan) and Na'ilah Suad Nasir (Spencer Foundation).
Nominations may be made by any individual or organization. (Individuals may nominate their own work.) The letter of nomination (with the nominee's current address, email address, and phone number) should detail the contributions made by the work to the field of education policy and management, and should include examples of the body of work.
There will be no 2021 award given.
Prior Winners
- 2019: Russ Whitehurst, Stony Brook University,
- 2017: Susan Dynarski, University of Michigan, "Education and Economic Mobility: What Have We Learned?"
- 2015: Sean Reardon, Stanford University, " Public Policy and Educational Inequality"
- 2013: Adam Gamoran, William T. Grant Foundation, " Inequality After NCLB"
- 2011: Charles Clotfelter, Duke University, " Sports and Populism at State U"
- 2009: Richard J. Murnane, Harvard University, " Educational Policy Research: Progress, Puzzles and Challenges"
- 2007: Helen F. Ladd, Duke University, " Holding Schools Accountable Revisited"
- 2005: Eric A. Hanushek, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, " Policy Analysis: Is It, or Could It Be, the Fifth Estate?"