Robert Balfanz is a Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Education, Center for Social Organization of Schools, and Director of the Everyone Graduates Center. His work focuses on translating research findings into effective school improvement strategies and educational reforms. He conducts research and organizes improvement efforts on secondary school redesign, improving high school graduation and college readiness rates, student success systems, chronic absenteeism, and instructional improvements in high-poverty schools.
Currently, Dr. Balfanz leads the GRAD Partnership, a collaborative effort of non-profits and school districts to scale the use of high-quality student success (on-track) systems. He also works with the National Partnership for Student Success (NPSS), a public-private partnership with the U.S. Department of Education, AmeriCorps, and the Everyone Graduates Center. NPSS works with over 100 non-profits and provides evidence-based student supports (mentors, tutors, success coaches, post-secondary advisors, and wraparound supports) to schools and communities most impacted by the pandemic.
PBS Frontline featured Dr. Balfanz’s work in The Education of Omarina, and he is the recipient of the Alliance for Excellent Education’s “Everyone a Graduate Award” and the Joan Lipsitz Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform. In 2013, he was named a “Champion for Change for African American Education” by the Obama White House.
Dr. Balfanz holds a B.A. in history from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in education from the University of Chicago.
Keywords: Early-warning systems; high school dropouts; instructional interventions in high-poverty schools; secondary school reform.
