Michael Feuer

Michael Feuer is a nonresident senior fellow in the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. He has been dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development and professor of education policy at the George Washington University since 2010. He came to GW from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, where he was the founding director of the Board on Testing and Assessment, founding director of the Center for Education, and executive director of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Previously Feuer was senior analyst and project director at the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment, where he specialized in educational technology and psychological testing in education and work.

Feuer’s research has focused on the economics of education and accountability, the role of international comparative assessments in shaping education policy, evaluation of teacher preparation, inequality and academic opportunity in a global context, the uses and misuses of testing, science policy and the uses of evidence, and the role of philanthropy in American public policy. In addition to many edited volumes and journal articles, Feuer has written two books, both published by Harvard Education Press: “The Rising Price of Objectivity: Philanthropy, Government, and the Future of Education Research” (2016), and “Moderating the Debate: Rationality and the Promise of American Education” (2006). His essays, commentaries, book reviews, and poems have appeared in newspapers, blogs, and magazines in the U.S. and abroad. His most recent essays have addressed the role of social science in pandemic models, risk assessment, and the condition of education in the West Bank and Gaza. He is currently at work on a book about civics education.

Feuer was appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014 to the National Board for Education Sciences. He is the immediate past-president of the National Academy of Education, fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Educational Research Association, member of the steering committee for the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities Yozma – Center for Knowledge and Research in Education, and co-chair of the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education.

Feuer received his B.A. in English from Queens College (CUNY), an M.A. in public management from the Wharton School, and a Ph.D. in public policy analysis from the University of Pennsylvania. He was on the faculty at Drexel University from 1981-1986 and has taught courses in education policy and research at Penn and Georgetown.