Gary Ritter

Gary W. Ritter is a Professor of Education and Public Policy and holder of the Endowed Chair in Education Policy in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. He is also the Director and Founder (in 2003) of the Office for Education Policy at the University of Arkansas. His primary area of interest is the development of alternative strategies for teacher compensation in public schools. His research interests also include program evaluation, school finance, standards-based and accountability-based school reform, and racial segregation in schools. Gary currently teaches courses in Education Policy, Assessment of Educational Outcomes, Program Evaluation, and Research Methods to graduate students. His work has been published in various outlets, including Phi Delta Kappan, Review of Educational Research, Education Finance and Policy,Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, the Journal of Education Finance, the American Review of Public Administration, the International Journal of Testing, the Georgetown Public Policy Review, Black Issues in Higher Education, Education Next, and Education Week. Gary graduated from John Carroll University with a Bachelor’s degree in Finance in 1990. After working as a Jesuit Volunteer for Sacred Heart School in Camden, NJ, he attended the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, where he earned an MA in Social Policy. Upon his return to the United States, Gary earned an MA in Public Policy from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania in 1996 and Ph.D. in Education Policy in 2000 from the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife and five children.