Richard Arum is Professor of Sociology and Education, New York University; and Director of Education Research Programs at the Social Science Research Council. He is author of numerous books and peer reviewed articles in leading social science journals including American Sociological Review, Criminology, Annual Review of Sociology, Sociology of Education and Research in Social Stratification and Mobility. Arum also successfully led recent efforts to organize educational stakeholders in New York City to create the Research Alliance for New York City Schools (an entity loosely modeled after the Consortium on Chicago School Research, focused on ongoing evaluation and assessment research to support public school improvement efforts). He received a B.A. from Tufts University, a M.Ed. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. In addition to teaching in higher education for the past two decades, Arum previously taught for five years in the Oakland, California public schools.