Thomas Bailey Named 11th President of Teachers College, Columbia University

Bailey has been a distinguished member of the Teachers College faculty for the past 27 years. He is also a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

Bailey's selection was the culmination of an intensive, national search that began last summer. A presidential search committee of Teachers College Trustees, faculty, students, alumni, and administrators interviewed many outstanding candidates who were nominated from around the world.

In making the Search Committee's recommendation to the Board, Search Committee Chair and Teachers College Trustee Leslie Nelson said, "Tom Bailey is the ideal person to lead the College into the future. As both a globally renowned education economist and a proven organizational leader, Tom has the skills, experience, and deep institutional knowledge to build on the significant advances in research, professional education, and practice made by the College under Susan Fuhrman's leadership, and to propel the College into a new era of innovation and excellence."

"This is an incredibly important time for Teachers College," Bailey said. "Profound inequities remain in our society and education system. We have witnessed a quiet re-segregation of schools throughout much of the nation, and we are now hearing challenges in the public discourse that question the fundamental value of higher education. The importance of Teachers College and other schools of education in responding to these challenges, in advancing equity, providing crucial research that can deliver the foundation of reform, and in training students who will go on to make improvements in education has never been higher. The solutions to today's problems require the type of broad strategy enabled by Teachers College's comprehensive approach to education of the whole person, inside and outside the classroom, in the fields of psychology, education, and health. It is a great honor and a wonderful opportunity to build on the tremendous work of President Susan Fuhrman and to get the chance to work with thousands of Teachers College students, staff, faculty, and researchers."

Bailey, who holds a B.A. and Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and MIT respectively, is a leading authority on American community colleges, which serve a majority of the nation's low-income and minority undergraduates. Indeed, he is a key national figure who has developed a research agenda that has helped guide the sector in essential ways.

Bailey has led groundbreaking research on strategies aimed at improving the outcomes of community college students – strategies that traverse areas as varied as developmental education, dual enrollment, digital learning, career and workforce education, student financial aid, and the financing of community colleges themselves. CCRC research has had a profound influence on the field. For example, CCRC's work on developmental education has sparked a national movement to revolutionize the processes for assessing and educating students who arrive at college with weak academic skills.

In 2015, Harvard University press published Redesigning America's Community Colleges: A Clearer Path to Student Success, written by Tom and his CCRC co-authors Shanna Jaggars and Davis Jenkins, which has become a virtual handbook for community college innovation. More than 250 colleges in 28 states are working on the implementation of the "guided pathways" reform model articulated in the book.

In announcing the selection, William D. Rueckert, the Chair of Teachers College's Board Trustees, praised Bailey's record as an institution builder and leader. "Tom has built CCRC from its fledgling beginnings 21 years ago to a center that has set the gold standard for applied research conducted in partnership with colleges to improve educational practice," he said.

During the past decade Bailey has also directed three national centers funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education: Center for the Analysis of Postsecondary Readiness, Center for Analysis of Postsecondary Education and Employment, and National Center for Postsecondary Research, all based at Teachers College. In 2010 U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan appointed him Chair of the Committee on Measures of Student Success, which developed recommendations for community colleges to comply with completion rate disclosure requirements under the Higher Education Opportunity Act.

"These qualifications make Tom a consensus choice to lead at any great school of education," Rueckert said. "But at Teachers College, where we are in the midst of so many critically important projects and opportunities, the value of a President who knows the institution and its people – and who is, in turn, known and respected – cannot be overstated."

About Teachers College
Founded in 1887, Teachers College, Columbia University, is the first and largest graduate school of education in the United States and is perennially ranked among the nation's best. Through its three main areas of expertise—education, health and psychology—the College is committed to disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, the preparation of dedicated public service professionals, engagement with local, national and global communities, and informing public policy to create a smarter, healthier, and more equitable and peaceful world. TC today has more than 5,000 students, more than 20 percent of whom come from outside the U.S., representing 84 different countries. 

www.tc.edu.

MEDIA CONTACTS:

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SOURCE Teachers College, Columbia University

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