DAN E. SWEAT LECTURE SERIES
Educational and Community Policy
Distinguished Chair in Educational and Community Policy
As a memorial to visionary leadership and commitment to the community and to learning in all forms, Georgia State University has created the Dan E. Sweat Distinguished Scholar Chair in Educational Community Policy. Ross Rubenstein currently holds this position.
The 2024 Dan E. Sweat Lecture
April 19 – Rucker Johnson
“The Anatomy of School Spending Effectiveness: Going Beyond Whether Money Matters Toward ‘How’, ‘Why’, ‘When’, ‘For Whom’, & ‘Which Types’? – New Evidence from California’s Local Control Funding Formula”
Rucker C. Johnson is the Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, and a faculty research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. As a labor economist specializing in education economics, Johnson’s work considers the role of poverty and inequality in affecting life chances.
Johnson was inducted as the Sir Arthur Lewis Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the National Academy of Education, and received the 2017 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship. His research has appeared in leading academic journals and in mainstream media outlets. He has been invited to give policy briefings at the White House and Capitol Hill. He is the author of Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works.
Johnson is committed to advancing his scholarly agenda of fusing insights from multiple disciplinary perspectives to improve our understanding of the causes, consequences, and remedies of inequality in this country. Johnson earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Michigan. At UC-Berkeley (2004-present), he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in applied econometrics and topical courses in race, poverty & inequality.
2023
Laura Perna (University of Pennsylvania: Vice Provost for Faculty, GSE Centennial Presidential Professor of Education, and Executive Director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy)
2022
Sean Reardon (Stanford University: Professor of Poverty and Inequality in Education & Professor of Sociology)
2020
Mark D. Weist (University of South Carolina: College of Arts & Sciences Professor of Psychology)
2019
Charles Clotfelter (Duke University: Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy & Professor of Economics & Law)
2018
Amy Ellen Schwartz (Syracuse University: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, New York University: Institute for Education and Social Policy)
2017
David N. Figlio (Northwestern University; Dean of the School of Education and Social Policy, Institute for Policy Research Fellow)
2016
Susan Dynarski (University of Michigan: Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, School of Education, and Department of Economics, and Institute for Social Research)
2013
Sarah Turner (University of Virginia and National Bureau of Economic Research)
“Public Universities: Challenges of the Great Recession for Students and Faculty”
2012
Brian Jacob (Walter H. Annenberg Professor of Education Policy and Professor of Economics, University of Michigan)
“Does Raising Educational Standards Raise Student Achievement?”
2011
Analysis and a Co- Director of Policy Analysis for California Education [PACE]at Stanford University)
“Understanding School Leadership: The Importance of Organizational Management and Personnel Practices”
2009
Amy Stuart Wells (Center for Understanding Race and Education (CURE) at Teachers College, Columbia University)
“Metro Migration, Racial Segregation and School Boundaries: Education Policy in Changing Suburban and Urban America”
2007
Richard J . Murnane (Harvard Graduate School of Education)
“Preparing Students to Thrive in the 21st Century Economy”
2006
Jane Hannaway (The Urban Institute)
“Accountability and the Classroom: A New Light Inside the Black Box of Schooling”
2005
Eric A. Hanushek (Hoover Institute at Stanford University)
“The Economic Importance of School Quality”
2004
Ronald F. Ferguson (Werner Center for Social Policy)
“The Racial Gap in Education Outcomes: Confronting the Challenge”