BRAD OLSEN
Senior fellow, Brookings Institution, Washington DC
Professor of education emeritus at University of California, Santa Cruz
Email: Bolsen@brookings.edu
Click for Brookings experts webpage
Click for Brad Olsen, LinkedIn
Embedded Files
FreshEd podcast episode (May, 2025) on Transforming Education Systems
Will Brehm: "Today we explore the transformation of education systems. How does change happen? Is change always positive? And what do we even mean by an education system? With me are Sara Ruto, Rakesh Rajani, and Brad Olsen. Earlier this year, they were part of a Brookings Roundtable discussion about what it means to integrate scaling impact and systems transformation to advance education improvement around the world."
Click here for Olsen's essay on which this conversation is based.
Public lecture (April, 2025) on Scaling Promising Education Initiatives Locally & Around the World
Had the pleasure of visiting Brookings Mountain West/University of Las Vegas, Nevada, recently. Amid a busy week of discussions about education policy, scaling, and the teaching profession, I had the opportunity to give a talk, drawing from the GPE-KIX, Brookings-ROSIE research.
Check out the talk and the great Q&A here.2024 podcast episode: How to deliver education reform at scale with The Brookings Institution's Brad Olsen and EDT's Elizabeth Ogott and Clare Buntic. Education Development Trust
The Brookings Institution’s work across recent years has been trailblazing in what it takes to achieve this, and Brad Olsen is able to give key insights into how we deliver such reform in the Global South. Brad joins us alongside EDT’s Elizabeth Ogott and Clare Buntic, as we delve into the ingredients to transformation, teacher buy-in, and togetherness.
This episode covers
key ingredients to successful education reform at scale
how to motivate and incentivise teachers while delivering large scale change
engaging teachers as authentic partners in reform
the imperative role of good data in delivering good adaptive change.
Most recent book: Teaching for Success (2016, 2nd ed.)
Olsen's book, Teaching for Success: Developing your Teacher Identity in Today's Classroom, 2nd edition (2016, Routledge Publishers) provides a professional learning experience for prospective, new, and experienced educators on how to recognize, adjust, and maximize the many ways your personal self and professional self become integrated in your teaching identity.
FreshEd podcast episode (2023) with Brad Olsen on Government decision-making for education around the world:
Will Brehm: "Today we dig into the ways in which governments in low- and middle-income countries make decisions on education. What interventions work and which should be scaled? My guest is Brad Olsen. As he shows, these questions are a lot more complex than we might think..." Find the episode here.And click here for the accompanying research report: Government decision-making on education in low- and middle-income countries: Understanding the fit among innovation, scaling strategy, and broader environment
Will Brehm: "Today we dig into the ways in which governments in low- and middle-income countries make decisions on education. What interventions work and which should be scaled? My guest is Brad Olsen. As he shows, these questions are a lot more complex than we might think..." Find the episode here.And click here for the accompanying research report: Government decision-making on education in low- and middle-income countries: Understanding the fit among innovation, scaling strategy, and broader environment
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