University names Chicago foundation leader to head its education research unit

The University of Chicago has selected Paul Goren, senior vice president of Chicago's Spencer Foundation and a national leader in the education foundation community, to head its Consortium on Chicago School Research, an organization that has become a national model for research on urban public school systems.

CCSR is part of the University's Urban Education Institute, which in addition to undertaking research on Chicago Public Schools, operates four charter schools serving children across Chicago's South Side and develops teachers and leaders for urban schools.

"The Urban Education Institute is an essential part of the University's effort to create knowledge to improve lives," said University President Robert J. Zimmer. "We are extremely pleased the consortium will have such a well-regarded leader at the helm."

In his new position, Goren will serve as the Lewis-Sebring Director of CCSR.

Goren has been senior vice president since 2001 of the Spencer Foundation, which focuses its work on supporting research on education. He has spent the past 25 years at the intersection of education research, policy and practice. He began his career as a middle school teacher and later trained as an education policy analyst and school administrator.

He has served as director of the Education Policy Studies Division of the National Governors' Association; executive director of Policy and Strategic Services for the Minneapolis Public Schools; and director of Child and Youth Development for the Program on Human and Community Development at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, where he was responsible for grants that included support for Chicago school reform.

Goren holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University, a master of public affairs degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and a B.A. from Williams College.

"We are thrilled with his appointment," said Timothy Knowles, the John Dewey Director of UEI. "Paul understands that creating reliably excellent schools for children growing up in urban America depends on good evidence—for teachers, for school and district leaders, and for the public. Paul brings national perspective, a deep knowledge base and an appetite to ask hard questions. The Urban Education Institute is enormously fortunate to have drawn Paul to our midst."

A Chicago native and graduate of the Chicago Public Schools, Goren has worked closely with the CCSR during his tenure at Spencer.

"It is a tremendous honor to be chosen to lead an organization I have long admired," he said, noting that CCSR has become a national model for how research can be utilized to improve education policy and practice. "The consortium and the Urban Education Institute reflect the University's commitment to improving urban education by actually working on the front lines of urban education."

With research organizations modeled after CCSR proliferating in school districts, cities and states nationwide, Goren said he looks forward to managing CCSR's growing national influence while maintaining its primary focus on the Chicago Public Schools. "The new CPS administration is focused on using data and information as the cornerstone of its decision-making. This provides the consortium with obvious opportunities to continue to be of assistance as an independent lens on CPS."

Goren succeeds John Q. Easton, who led CCSR from 2002 until May 2009, when he accepted an appointment from President Obama to run the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education.

"Paul's experiences working in large urban school districts and with policymakers and top researchers across the country make him the perfect person to lead CCSR," Easton said. "I expect Paul will expand CCSR's national presence, maintain the highest quality research and work closely to inform new initiatives in Chicago Public Schools."