Jay Heubert
Office Location:
212E ZankelOffice Hours:
By appointmentTC Affiliations:
Faculty Expertise:
Educational Background
- B.A. (Psychology), Swarthmore College (1973)
- M.A.T. (Secondary English), Duke University (1974)
- J.D. cum laude, Harvard Law School (1980)
- Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education (1982)
Scholarly Interests
- Law, policy, and practice in K-12 and higher education
- Discrimination and equal educational opportunity based on race, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and disability;
- Segregation and desegregation based on race, national origin, and SES;
- High-stakes testing for student tracking, promotion, and graduation;
- The use of law to promote education reform and improved student achievement;
- Interprofessional collaboration between lawyers, policy makers, researchers, and practitioners.
Selected Publications
National Research Council, A. Beatty, U. Neisser, W. Trent, and J. Heubert, eds. (2001). Understanding Dropouts: Statistics, Strategies, and High-Stakes Testing. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
National Research Council, J. Heubert and R. Hauser, eds. (1999). High Stakes: Testing for Tracking, Promotion, and Graduation. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Heubert, J., ed. (1999). Law and School Reform: Six Strategies for Promoting Educational Equity. New Haven: Yale University Press. Critics’ Choice Selection, American Educational Studies Association (2000).
Burris, C., J. Heubert and H. Levin. (Spring 2006). Accelerating mathematics achievement using heterogeneous grouping. American Educational Research Journal 43(1): 103-134.
Heubert, J. (1999). Nondiscriminatory use of high-stakes tests: Combining professional test-use standards with federal civil-rights enforcement. West’s Education Law Reporter 133: 17-33.
Heubert, J. (1999). Six law-driven school reforms: Developments, lessons, and prospects. In Heubert, J., ed., Law and School Reform: Six Strategies for Promoting Educational Equity. New Haven: Yale University Press: 1-38.
Heubert, J. (1997). The more we get together: Improving collaboration between educators and their lawyers. Harvard Educational Review 67(3): 531-582.
Heubert, J. (1997). Schools without rules? Charter schools, federal disability law, and the paradoxes of deregulation. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 32(2): 301-353.
Benjes, J., J. Heubert, and M. O'Brien (1980). The legality of minimum competency test programs under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review 15(3): 537-622.
Heubert, J. (2005). High-stakes testing, nationally and in the South. In Edley, C., G. Orfield, and J. Boger, eds., School Resegregation: Must the South Turn Back? Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 221-238
Burris, C., J. Heubert and H. Levin (February 2004). Math acceleration for all. Educational Leadership 61(5): 68-71.
Heubert, J. (2004). High-stakes testing in a changing environment: Disparate impact, opportunity to learn, and current legal protections. In Fuhrman, S. and R. Elmore, eds., Redesigning Accountability Systems for Education. New York: Teachers College Press: 220-244.
Heubert, J. (Dec. 2002/Jan. 2003). First, do no harm: When improper use of graduation tests and promotion tests hurts our neediest students. Educational Leadership 60 (4): 26-30.
Heubert, J. (2002). Disability, race, and high-stakes testing of students. In Losen, D. and G. Orfield, eds., Racial Inequity in Special Education. Cambridge: Harvard Education Press: 137-165.
Heubert, J. (2001). High-stakes testing and civil rights: Standards of appropriate test use and a strategy for enforcing them. In Orfield, G. and M. Kornhaber, eds., Raising Standards or Raising Barriers? Inequality and High Stakes Testing in Public Education. New York: The Century Foundation Press: 179-194, 229-236.
Biographical Information
Jay P. Heubert is a Professor of Law and Education at Teachers College and an Adjunct Professor of Law and Education at Columbia Law School, where he offers courses in education law and policy. He is also faculty chair of the annual School Law Institute, a Teachers College program offered annually since 1999 at Columbia Law School. From 2004 to 2010 he was faculty adviser to the Cahn Fellows Program for Distinguished Public School Principals.
His J.D. cum laude and Ed.D. are from Harvard, where he taught from 1985-98. He has also served as chief counsel to the Pennsylvania Department of Education (1987-89) and as a civil-rights lawyer with the Education Section of Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (1980-85); there he received a special commendation for outstanding performance from the Attorney General of the U.S. He also taught high-school English in rural North Carolina (1973-74) and served as an advisory specialist on desegregation and gender equity in the School District of Philadelphia (1974-77).
In 1997-98, he served as study director to an interdisciplinary committee of scholars conducting a Congressionally-mandated study of high-stakes testing (testing for student tracking, promotion, and graduation) through the National Research Council. From 2000-2002, he was one of twelve researchers, two in education, selected nationally in the inaugural year of a Carnegie Corporation individual fellowship program; he studied how student tracking, promotion testing, and graduation testing influence student learning and life chances, particularly for students of color, students with disabilities, and English-language learners. In 1990 and 1995, graduating students at the Harvard Graduate School of Education selected him to be their faculty speaker at the school-wide commencement. In June 2001, he received the Harvard Graduate School of Education's annual Alumni Award for Outstanding Contribution to Education. Based on student course evaluations, he received "outstanding teacher" awards from Teachers College each school year from 1998-99 through 2005-2006.
Grants
- Carnegie Scholars Fellowship Program. Fellowship from Carnegie Corporation of New York to study how promotion testing and graduation testing affect the learning and life chances of K- 12 students, particularly minority students, English language learners, and students with disabilities; and to explore methods of promoting appropriate use of high-stakes tests (two-year fellowship, $100,000) (2000-2002).
- U.S. Department of Education. Co-director for policy (with Professor Martha Minow of Harvard Law School), National Center for Accessing the General Curriculum. Research, on access of students with disabilities to the general curriculum, focuses on state assessment of students with disabilities; access of students with disabilities to voucher programs and charter schools; and administrative training needed to integrate special education, bilingual education, vocational education, Title I, and "general education" services within schools (five-year grant, $2.5 million, $325,000 for policy research) (2000-2003).
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Co-principal investigator (first with Professor Christopher Edley, Jr. and then with Professor Martha Minow, both of Harvard Law School) for study of the role of law and lawyers in school reform (five-year grant, $287,000) (1992-97).
- Children's Studies at Harvard. Conducted interdisciplinary research on the effects of high-stakes testing on low-SES students, minority students, English-language learners, and students with disabilities ($18,000) (1997-98).
- Children's Studies at Harvard. As research associate, helped plan project to study charter schools; studied obligations of charter schools to serve students with disabilities ($15,000) (1995-96).
Faculty research grant, Teachers College, Columbia University. Developed course on legal and policy issues in high-stakes testing; and researched newly released professional standards for high-stakes educational tests (1999-2000). - Faculty research and innovation grants, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Conducted research on state-law protections against harassment of students (1992), the effects of minimum competency testing on students and teachers (1994), and educator-lawyer collaboration (1996).
- Teaching quality and curricular improvement grants, Harvard Graduate School of Education. Incorporated into courses research by and about women and persons of color (1993, 1997).
Service to the College and University
Faculty Committees
- Elected member, College-Wide Faculty Salary Committee (2015-2018)
- Elected member, Faculty Executive Committee, Teachers College (2013-2015)
- Chair, FEC Race, Culture, and Diversity Subcommittee (2014- 2015), Elected member (2013-2014)
- Chair, Master’s Admissions Committee, Education Leadership Program (2011-2015)
- Elected TC faculty representative, Columbia University Faculty Senate (2012-2014)
- Volunteer member, College-Wide Committee for Community and Diversity (2012-2015)
- Member, Faculty Search Committee in Mathematics Education (2013-2014)
- Member, Faculty Search Committee for IUME Director (2012-2013)
- Elected member, College-Wide Committee for Promotion to Full Professor (Sept. 2006-2008, 2010-2012)
- Member, College-Wide Diversity Task Force (2008-2011)
- Elected member, College-Wide Tenure Committee (January-June 2006, 2008-2010)
- Faculty Adviser, Cahn Fellowship Program for Distinguished New York City Principals (2004-2010)
- Member, Faculty Advisory Committee, Campaign for Educational Equity, Teachers College (2005-2008)
- Member, Ed.D. Committtee (Sept. 2006-2008).
- Member, Committee on Doctoral Admissions and Financial Aid, Education Leadership Program (2002-2008); Chair (2007, 2008).
- Member, Policy Studies Coordinating Committee (2004-2008)
- Coordinator, Education Leadership Program (2002-2004)
- Chair, Faculty Search Committees, Education Leadership Program (2007-2008; 2004-2005, 2002-2003)
- Member, Brown at 50 Commemoration Committee, Teachers College (2002-2004)
- New York City Leadership Academy Partnership, Teachers College (2002-2004)
- Member, Region 10 (Harlem) Initiative, Teachers College (2002-2004)
- Faculty Executive Committee Subcommittee on Personnel, Teachers College, Columbia University (2002-2003)
- Co-chair, NCATE Committee, Education Leadership Program, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University (2002-2004)
- Member, Target of Opportunity Committee, Teachers College, Columbia University (1998-2001)
- Member, Faculty Advisory Committee, Teachers College, Columbia University (2000-2001)
- Member, Faculty Executive Committee's Subcommittee on Race, Culture, and Diversity, Teachers College, Columbia University (1998-2001)
- Member, Faculty Search Committee, Education Leadership Program, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University (2000-2001)
- Member, Committee on Intellectual Property, Teachers College, Columbia University (2000-2001)
- Member, Faculty Search Committee, Education Leadership Program, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University (1999-2000)
- Member, Faculty Search Committee, Programs in Higher Education, Department of Organization and Leadership, Teachers College, Columbia University (1998-99).
- Co-chair, School-Wide Diversity Committee, Harvard Graduate School of Education (1997-98).
- Faculty Adviser, Minority Advisory Committee to the Dean, Harvard Graduate School of Education (1985-98).
- University-Wide Pool of Hearing Officers, Harvard University (1990-96)
- School-Wide Committee on Harassment, Harvard Graduate School of Education (1993-98)
- Chair, Committee to Draft Harassment Policy for the Harvard Graduate School of Education (1987-88, 1991-93).
- Faculty Steering Committee, Harvard Urban Superintendents Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education (1989-95).
- Dean's Academic Cabinet, Harvard Graduate School of Education (1985-88, 1994-95).
- Doctoral Admissions Committee, Programs in Administration, Planning and Social Policy,
- Harvard Graduate School of Education (Chair, 1993-94; Member, 1987-88, 1991-93).
- Steering Committee, Urban Superintendents Program, Harvard Graduate School of Education (1990-94)