About Me

Matthew Kraft is a Professor of Education and Economics at Brown University, a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Research Fellow with IZA – Institute of Labor Economics, and an Invited Researcher at J-PAL North America. His research focuses on two primary areas: improving the effectiveness of K-12 educators and schools, and examining how education systems can adapt to and mitigate climate change. Kraft’s scholarship has deepened our understanding of teacher labor markets and teacher quality, informed the design and scaling of tutoring programs, established new benchmarks for interpreting effect sizes in education research, documented how inequitable access to instructional time impacts student learning, and illuminated how environmental pressures affect schools and students. In 2025, he founded SustainableED, a Brown University initiative advancing research at the intersection of education systems and the environment.

He has served in both federal and local policy roles as a Senior Economist on the White House Council of Economic Advisers and as an elected school board member. He is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Educational Research Association Outstanding Public Communication Award, the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness Early Career Award, the William T. Grant Scholar Award, the Brown University Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, the Palmer O. Johnson Memorial Award for the most outstanding article across the seven flagship AERA journals, and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. He taught high school humanities before earning his doctorate at Harvard University.