Helen F. Ladd

Helen F. Ladd is Professor of Public Policy Studies and Economics at Duke University and Associate Director of the Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy. Prior to 1986, she taught at Dartmouth College, Wellesley College, and at Harvard University, first in the City and Regional Planning Program and then in the Kennedy School of Government. Most of her current research focuses on education policy. She is the editor of Holding Schools Accountable: Performance-Based Reform in Education (Brookings Institution, 1996) and is the coauthor (with Edward Fiske) of When Schools Compete:A Cautionary Tale (Brookings Institution, 2000) which draws lessons for the U.S from New Zealand’s experience with self-governing schools, parental choice and competition. From 1996-99 she co-chaired a National Academy of Sciences Committee on Education Finance. In that capacity she is the co-editor of two books: a set of background papers, Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance and the final report, Making Money Matter: Financing America’s Schools. During the past few years she has written articles on school-based accountability, market-based reforms in education, parental choice and competition, intergenerational conflict and the willingness to support education, and the effects of HUD’s Moving to Opportunity Program on educational opportunities and outcomes. She graduated with a B.A. degree from Wellesley College in 1967, received a master's degree from the London School of Economics in 1968, and earned her Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 1974. As of July 1, 2003, she is the Edgar Thompson Professor of Public Policy Studies.