Levin, Henry M.

(b. 1938, New York City). Ph.D., M.A. Economics, Rutgers University; B.S. Economics and Marketing, New York University.

Levin is William Heard Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, and Director of the National Center for the Study of Privatization in Education. He is the David Jacks Professor Emeritus of Higher Education and Economics and former Director of the Center for Educational Research at Stanford University, whose faculty he joined in 1968. Previously, he was Research Associate at the Economics Studies Division of the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC; Founder of the Accelerated Schools Project; Founding Director of the Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance; and a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. He has also been Visiting Professor at Peking University, a consultant to the World Bank, and Fulbright Professor in Spain and Mexico.

He is a specialist in the economics of education and has focused extensively on the cost effectiveness of educational approaches, the educational outcomes related to a variety of finance options and sources (e.g., vouchers, private versus public), the educational implications of technologies, and strategies such as accelerated schools, a program he conceived and developed for high-risk students designed to accelerate the learning of disadvantaged students to successfully integrate them into the mainstream. His work has been influenced by Thomas D. Cook, as well as many economists.

[Page 229]He is the author, editor, coauthor, or coeditor of numerous articles and 13 books, including Resource Guide for Accelerated Schools, Effective Schools in Developing Societies, Comparing Public and Private Schools, Schooling and Work in the Democratic State, and Public Dollars for Private Schools. His best selling book, Cost-Effectiveness Analysis: Methods and Applications, is now in its second edition. He is Editor of Review of Educational Research and is on the Editorial Board of Urban Review, Evaluation and Program Planning, Public Finance Review, and Economics of Education Review. He is a member of the International Academy of Education and served as President of the Evaluation Research Society. He is the winner of the 1992 Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement and the 1985 Alva and Gunnar Myrdal Evaluation Practice Award of the American Evaluation Association.