Smith, Marshall S.
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Marshall Smith, professor and dean of Stanford University’s School of Education from 1986 to 1993, helped shape American education policy through his broad academic research and his service in three presidential administrations. At Stanford, he guided the school through a budget crisis, augmented its academic curriculum with practical applications, and increased the diversity of both faculty and students. Smith begins the interview with a brief overview of his childhood spent moving between New Jersey and several other states due to his father’s job as a military psychologist during World War II. He relates how an early stint as a computer programmer gave him the technical expertise to perform the automated analysis of textual content, which became his initial research focus as a graduate student at the Harvard School of Education. Smith describes his shift into the study of education policy. He explains his role in the review of the Coleman Report, a massive survey of educational conditions in the United States undertaken in the mid-1960’s, and how he joined the project through his connection with Pat Moynihan, then a professor at Harvard. Smith speaks about his faculty appointment at Harvard, founding the Center for Education Policy Research with Christopher Jencks and David Cohen, and the work he did to analyze the initial results from the Head Start program. Smith then explains his entry into government work, discussing how he ran the reading program at the National Institute of Education and then advised on educational policy in the Carter administration. He explains how his advancement to a senior leadership position in the newly formed Department of Education was initially derailed by the conclusion drawn in his book, Inequality, that there was not a strong correlation between student achievement and school desegregation. While he defends his statistical finding, he relates his own personal distaste for school segregation, formed during his youth when his father took him to see the rundown conditions in a nearby African American school, when his family lived in Georgia. After touching on his time as a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his participation in an educational delegation to China in 1980, Smith details how he was recruited to Stanford in 1986 to be dean of the School of Education. Ruminating on his deanship, Smith talks about efforts to increase student diversity in the Stanford School of Education and at the university level through his work with the University Committee on Minority Issues. He discusses efforts to improve faculty diversity as well. Smith recalls some of his other goals as dean including expanding the school’s influence in policy and practical applications. He explains how establishing national and state level policy centers at the university facilitated these changes, and he runs through the many retirements and hires during his tenure. He discusses how budget issues in 1989 involved him in a university-wide administrative reorganization and drove him to implement changes to his own school, including starting a financially lucrative master’s program and a training program for school principals. He talks about his research work with Jennifer O’Day on primary education standards and testing, the results of which eventually made their way into national standard discussions. Smith explains the events that again drew him into government: his work with the Democratic-controlled Congress under the first Bush administration and his friendship with then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. He speaks about requesting a break from Stanford to serve on Clinton’s presidential transitional team, which became permanent when he was given the job of Under Secretary of the Department of Education, and tells the story of his return to Stanford in 2000. Smith then speaks about his later career and projects: directing the Education Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, developing resources for early online courses, advising the Obama administration on distributing primary education stimulus money, and his non-profit work in Pakistan. He gives his impressions of the political environment when he worked with different administrations. Smith closes the interview talking about cooperative learning theory, his optimism that programs like Common Core and Social Emotional Learning will improve educational outcomes, and his thoughts on charter schools.
Description
| Type of resource | mixed material |
|---|---|
| Date created | January 14, 2016 - January 21, 2016 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Smith, Marshall S. | |
|---|---|---|
| Contributing author | Hannigan, Anne | |
| Publisher | Stanford Historical Society |
Subjects
| Subject | Smith |
|---|---|
| Subject | Marshall S. |
| Subject | Stanford Historical Society |
| Subject | oral histories |
| Subject | interviews |
| Subject | higher education |
| Subject | professors |
| Subject | deans |
| Subject | Stanford University > School of Education |
| Subject | Stanford University > Graduate School of Education |
| Subject | educational policy |
| Subject | education and state |
| Subject | school integration |
| Subject | universities and colleges > administration |
| Subject | universities and colleges > faculty |
Bibliographic information
| Related item |
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|---|---|
| Location | https://purl.stanford.edu/qs636vv6094 |
Access conditions
- Use and reproduction
- The materials are open for research use and may be used freely for non-commercial purposes with an attribution. For commercial permission requests, please contact the Stanford University Archives (universityarchives@stanford.edu).
- Copyright
- Copyright © The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved.
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
Smith, Marshall S. (2016).
Oral History. Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program Interviews (SC0932).
Department of Special Collections & University Archives, Stanford University Libraries,
Stanford, Calif. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/qs636vv6094
Collection
Stanford Historical Society Oral History Program interviews, 1999-2022
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