Gary Orfield
Distinguished Research Professor
Gary Orfield is Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning at the University of California, Los Angeles. His research interests are in the study of civil rights, education policy, urban policy, and minority opportunity. He was co-founder and director of the Harvard Civil Rights Project, and now serves as co-director of the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at UCLA. His central interest has been the development and implementation of social policy, particularly the impact of policy on equal opportunity for success in American society. Orfield is a member of the National Academy of Education and has received numerous awards, including the Teachers College Medal, the Social Justice Award of the AERA, the American Political Science Association Charles Merriam Award for his “contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research,” and honorary PhDs.
Departments
Programs
Interests
Research Centers
Titles and Positions
- Co-Director, Civil Rights Project
- Distinguished Research Professor of Education, Law, Political Science and Urban Planning, UCLA
- Professor Emeritus, Education and Social Policy, Harvard University
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
- Member, National Academy of Education
- Danforth & Brookings Inst. fellowships
- Spencer Foundation Senior Scholar award
- Honorary Ph.D., Penn State Univ.
- Wheelock College, Teachers College Medal
- AERA Social Justice award
- American Political Science Assoc. Charles Merriam Award
- Kappa Delta Pi Laureate award
Select Publications
- The Walls Around College Opportunity: The Failure of Colorblind Policy, Princeton University Press, 2022.
- Accountability and Opportunity in Higher Education (ed., with Nicholas Hillman), Harvard Education Press, 2018.
- Discrimination in Elite Public Schools: Investigating Buffalo, ed. with Jennifer Ayscue, Teachers College Press, 2018.
- Educational Delusions: Why Choice Can Deepen Inequality and How to Make Schools Fair, Univ. of California Press, 2013 (with Erica Frankenberg).
- Dropouts in America: Confronting the Graduation Rate Crisis, ed., Harvard Education Press, 2004.
- Religion Race and Justice in a Changing America, ed. with Holly Lebowitz, Century Foundation Press, 1999.
- Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education. New Press, 1996
- The Closing Door: Conservative Policy and Black Opportunity, Univ. of Chicago Press, 1991 (with Carole Ashkinaze).
- Must We Bus? Segregated Schools and National Policy, Brookings Inst., 1978.
- Congressional Power: Congress and Social Change, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975.