On Tuesday, December 3^rd, Teachers College will celebrate the life and work of Harold Noah (Ph.D. ’64), the late Professor Emeritus of Comparative Education and Economics & Education, and former TC dean. 

The gathering, organized by Gita Steiner-Khamsi, Professor of Education, will be held in Milbank Chapel from 10:30 a.m. to noon. Following welcoming remarks from TC President Thomas Bailey, colleagues, friends, former students and family members will share their remembrances of Noah, who died in January 2019 at age 94.

Noah was considered a giant in the fields of comparative education and education economics. His monumentally influential 1969 book, Toward a Science of Comparative Education, coauthored with his frequent collaborator, Max Eckstein (they met as TC doctoral students), helped to shift the field toward quantitative methodologies drawn from political science, economics and sociology that could be used to explain and predict phenomena rather than simply describe them. Noah also pioneered the use of cross-national comparisons among multiple nations. He was instrumental in launching the field of international large-scale assessment, which now encompasses global evaluations such as Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). His ultimate goal was to develop generalizable theories that could be applied across cultures and nations.

Noah’s monumentally influential 1969 book, Toward a Science of Comparative Education, coauthored with his frequent collaborator, Max Eckstein, helped to shift the field toward quantitative methodologies drawn from political science, economics and sociology that could be used to explain and predict phenomena rather than simply describe them.

In addition to Bailey, other speakers at the tribute for Noah will include W. Warner Burke, TC’s E.L. Thorndike Professor of Psychology & Education; Peter Moock, former Lead Education Economist and Division Chief, The World Bank and TC Alumni Council; Adam and David Noah, sons of Harold Noah; former TC President Susan Fuhrman (Ph.D. ’77); Ellen Lagemann (Ph.D. ’78), Levy Institute Research Professor at Bard College and former Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education; Robbie McClintock, Teachers College Professor Emeritus; Oren Pizmony-Levy, Associate Professor of International and Comparative Education, and Diane Ravitch (Ph.D. ’75), Research Professor of Education at New York University and former Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education.