Douglas Ready is a Professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. From 2006-2026 he served as Professor of Education and Public Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research explores the links between education policy, social policy, and educational equity, with a particular focus on how contemporary policies and programs moderate or exacerbate socio-demographic disparities in student opportunities and outcomes. This work has received over $22 million in support from government and private philanthropic organizations, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education (i3, EIR), Gates Foundation, Blueprint Labs @ MIT, Spencer Foundation, Robin Hood Foundation, the Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Fund for Strategic Innovation, Jacobs Foundation, Rauch Foundation, Fundação Lemann, Itaú Social, and Instituto Peninsula. Representative publications have appeared in Sociology of Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Policy, Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, American Journal of Education, Teachers College Record, Research in Higher Education, Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Early Education and Development, as well as in books and edited volumes published by the Brookings Institution, National Academies, Teachers College Press, and the American Educational Research Association. He has served on the Editorial Boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and American Educational Research Journal, and as Associate Editor of Sociology of Education.
Education
- PhD Educational Foundations (Sociology) and Public Policy, University of Michigan
- MEd Social Foundations of Education, University of Virginia
- MM, University of Rochester
- BMEd, Ohio State University
Select Publications
- Shmoys, R.J., McCormick, S.G, & Ready, D.D. (in press). Constrained agency and the structures of educational choice: Evidence from New York City. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.
- Ready, D.D., & Reid, J.L. (2023). Segregating Gotham’s youngest: Racial/ethnic sorting and the choice architecture of New York City’s Pre-K for All. American Educational Research Journal, 60(5), 1023-1052.
- Dumont, H., & Ready, D.D. (2023). On the promise of personalized learning for educational equity. npj Science of Learning, 8(26), 1-6.
- Lyon, M., Bretas, S., & Ready D.D. (2023). Design philanthropy: Challenges and opportunities in the evolution of philanthropic giving. Educational Policy, 37(3), 731-768.
- Reid, J., & Ready, D.D. (2022). Heterogeneity in the development of executive function: Evidence from nationally representative data. Early Education and Development, 33(2), 243-267.
- Daruwala, I., Bretas, S., & Ready, D.D. (2021). When logics collide: Implementing technology-enabled personalization in the age of accountability. Educational Researcher, 50(3), 157-164.
- Dumont, H., & Ready, D.D. (2020). Do schools reduce or exacerbate inequality? How the associations between student achievement and achievement growth influence our understanding of the role of schooling. American Educational Research Journal, 57(2), 728-774.
- Warner, M.T., & Ready, D.D. (2019). Equity, access, and mathematics coursetaking within purposefully created small high schools. Educational Policy, 33(5), 761-804.
- Ready, D.D., & Reid, J.L. (2019). Children’s executive function development and school socioeconomic and racial/ethnic composition. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 47, 457-471.
- Chu, E.M., & Ready, D.D. (2018). Exclusion and urban public high schools: Short- and long-term consequences of school suspensions. American Journal of Education, 124(4), 479-509.