Michael Feuer

Biography

Michael Feuer is professor of education and international affairs and immediate past dean of the Graduate School of Education and Human Development at the George Washington University, a role he held for 15 years. He is past president of the National Academy of Education, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and senior scholar at Penn-Washington. During the 2025–2026 academic year, while on research leave from GW, Feuer is a visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania and Tel Aviv University.

Feuer came to GW in 2010 after 25 years in leadership roles at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment. He was appointed by President Obama in 2014 to the National Board for Education Sciences and is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the American Educational Research Association.

Feuer’s research has focused on the economics of education, testing methods and policy, international comparative assessments, teacher preparation, inequality and academic opportunity, science policy, use of research to inform policy, the role of philanthropy, and civics education. In addition to many edited volumes and journal articles, Feuer is the author of Moderating the Debate: Rationality and the Promise of American Education (2006), and The Rising Price of Objectivity: Philanthropy, Government, and the Future of Education Research (2016), both published by Harvard Education Press; and Can Schools Save Democracy? Civic Education and the Common Good (2023), published by Johns Hopkins University Press. In addition to his many academic articles, Feuer’s essays, commentaries, book reviews, letters, and poems have appeared in newspapers, blogs, and magazines in the U.S. and abroad. He consults to governments and research organizations in Europe, Central Asia, Israel, and North Africa. Feuer has served on and chaired numerous non-profit boards.

Feuer received a B.A. cum laude in English literature (specialization in journalism) from Queens College (CUNY), an M.A. in public management from the Wharton School, and a Ph.D. in public policy from the University of Pennsylvania. He studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Sorbonne, was a tenured faculty member at Drexel University, and taught graduate education policy courses at the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. He is fluent in French and Hebrew.

Feuer lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife Regine, a physician certified in both ob-gyn and addiction medicine. The Feuers have two grown children.

Education

• Ph.D. (Public Policy) University of Pennsylvania, 1980
• M.A. (Public Management) University of Pennsylvania, 1977
• B.A. (English Literature) Queens College, City University of New York, 1973

Areas of Expertise

• Civics education
• Economics of education
• Testing and assessment
• Philanthropy
• International comparative education