James W. Guthrie

Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy; Director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy

Ph.D., Stanford University, 1968

Research Area

Education Policy, Education Finance, intersection of law and education policy, Resource Allocation in Education, Educational Accountability, and Leadership in Education

Research Interests

Professor Guthrie concentrates on educational policy issues and resource allocation consequences. More specifically, he is concerned with school finance, both K-12 and higher education, legal issues of equity and adequacy, education reform strategies, educational accountability, political processes and education, and theories of education reform.

Professor Guthrie chaired the Consortium on Renewing Education (CORE), a national confederation of academic researchers, business officials, and public leaders concerned with American K-12 education reform. This endeavor was funded by The Ball Foundation of Glen Ellyn, Illinois, and resulted in the issuance of the 1998 report, 20/20 Vision: A Strategy for Doubling America's Academic Achievement by the Year 2020. Professor Guthrie served as the chief of staff for the Tennessee Governor's Council on Excellence in Higher Education, an endeavor that was directed at providing a strategic plan for Tennessee to elevate its higher education system into the nation's top-most ranks in the next century. He is engaged in a number of litigation support efforts and analytic projects attempting to define "adequacy" in the financing of America's K-12 public schools.

Professor Guthrie has consulted in the international arena on issues related to strategic planning by nations and the design of education school finance systems in Armenia, Australia, Chile, Guyana, Hong Kong, Romania, and South Africa, and has had extensive experience in consulting for The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Organization of American States. He has been selected to serve on panels of the National Academy of Sciences.

Short Biography

James W. Guthrie is Patricia and Rodes Hart professor of educational leadership and policy, and director of the Peabody Center for Education Policy at Peabody. He instructs both undergraduate and graduate courses, and conducts research on education policy and finance.

He is founder and chairman of the board of Management Analysis & Planning, Inc. (MAP), a private sector management consulting firm specializing in public finance and litigation support. MAP offices are located in Davis, California.

Previously a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, for 27 years, he holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Stanford University, and undertook postdoctoral study in public finance at Harvard. He also was a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford Brookes College, Oxford, England, and the Irving R. Melbo Visiting Professor at the University of Southern California.

Professor Guthrie has been a consultant to the governments of Armenia, Australia, Chile, Guyana, Hong Kong, Pakistan, Romania, and South Africa, and has had extensive experience in consulting for The World Bank, UNESCO, and the Organization of American States.

He is the author or co-author of fourteen books, and more than 200 professional and scholarly articles. He is past president of the American Education Finance Association, served as editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of American Education, published in 2002, and is series editor of the ten-volume Peabody Education Leadership Series. He is principal investigator for the National Center on Performance Incentives at Vanderbilt University, a federally funded research center concentrating on educator performance incentives.

Learn More about James W. Guthrie:

Projects | Courses Taught | Selected Publications
Awards | CV | Media Mentions

Courses Taught

Professor Guthrie teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in educational policy, education finance, and leadership.
Recent courses taught include undergraduate courses Public Policy (HOD 2100) and Executive Leadership (HOD 2770). Graduate courses include Education Finance and Politics and Policy in Education (EDLS 3460) and Resource Allocation (LPO 3500).

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