Robert Boruch

Robert Boruch is the University Trustee Chair Professor Emeritus of Education and Statistics at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education. He holds a B.E. in Metallurgical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology (1964) and a Ph.D. in Psychology with a Statistics minor from Iowa State University (1968). Prior to joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, Boruch served in research positions at the National Academy of Sciences, Social Science Research Council, and American Council on Education, and as Professor of Psychology and Statistics at Northwestern University.

Boruch's research focuses on evaluating the effects of educational and social interventions, randomized controlled trials across social sectors in developed and developing countries, ethics in social research, systematic reviews of evidence, standards of evidence, and data sharing. He is co-founder of the International Campbell Collaboration, which presents an annual Robert F. Boruch Award for distinctive contributions to evidence-based policy. Boruch has advised the U.S. Government Accountability Office, National Science Foundation, National Center for Education Statistics, and other federal agencies; served on the boards of the William T. Grant Foundation, Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy, and American Institutes for Research; and participated in over a dozen National Academy of Sciences committees. He is on the editorial boards of the Journal of Experimental Criminology and Randomized Social Experiments eJournal, and the advisory board of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. Honors include National Associate of the National Academy of Sciences; Fellow of the American Statistical Association, American Educational Research Association, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Academy for Experimental Criminology; and residential fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences and Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center. Key publications include Learning at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Science, Measurement, and Policy in Low-Income Countries (2018, with Daniel A. Wagner and Sharon Wolf), Evidence Matters: Randomized Trials in Education Research (2002, edited with Frederick Mosteller), Place Randomized Trials: Experimental Tests of Public Policy (2005), Randomized Experiments for Planning and Evaluation: A Practical Guide (1997), and Assuring the Confidentiality of Social Research Data (1982, with Joe S. Cecil). His contributions have advanced research methods and evidence-based decision-making in education and social policy.

Professional Email: robertb@gse.upenn.edu