UC Davis School of Education

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Thomas Timar

Professor of Education, Director of CAP-Ed
Phone: (530) 754-6654
Email: tbtimar@ucdavis.edu

To paraphrase Dostoevsky, the quality of a society should be measured by the quality of its schools, particularly the quality of its schools educating the most disadvantaged children.


Expertise
Education Policy and Governance; International education policy and governance; School finance

Education

  • Ph.D., Educational Policy (Law and Finance) - UC, Berkeley
  • MA., Comparative Literature (German, Hungarian, Russian) UC Berkeley
  • BA. Comparative Literature (Russian, German, Hungarian)

Highlighted Publications

  • T. Timar (2006) State Strategies to Improve Low-Performing Schools: California’s High Priority School Grants Program. UC Davis, Center for Applied Policy in Education. School of Education
  • T. Timar (2006) Evaluating State Intervention: The High Priority Schools Grant Program. Crucial Issues in California Education2006: Rekindling Reform. University of California, Berkeley: Policy Analysis for California Education, School of Education. www.pace.berkeley.edu
  • T. Timar (2005) Exploring the Limits of Entitlement: Williams v. the State of California. Peabody Journal 80 (3)
     
    View full publication list

Professional Experience

  • Professor, UC Davis
  • Associate Professor, UC Riverside
  • Associate Professor, Visiting, UC Berkeley
  • Associate Professor, Visiting, Stanford
  • Assistant Professor, Visiting, Harvard

Awards and Honors

  • Spencer Fellowship. Spencer Foundation, “Local Responses to State Policy.” 1991-1993.0.0

Associations, Boards & Committees

  • Director of Research, Governor’s Advisory Committee on Education Excellence (2006-07)
  • Trainer/Consultant. International Policy Fellows Program, Open Society Institute. 2000-2003.
  • Director, UC Education Abroad Program, Budapest, Hungarey
  • Consultant,Open Society Institute/Soros Network. Budapest, Hungary. 2001.
  • Director, Central European University, Summer University, Education Policy Program. 1998-2002.
  • Panelist. Research Advisory Panel. Education Commission of the States; Governing America’s Schools Project. 1998-2000.
  • Consultant, United Nations Development Program, Ukraine.
  • Consultant, USAID, Montenegro
  • Consultant, Ministry of Education, Lithuania
  • Consultant, Ministry of Education, Latvia
  • Consultant, National Institute for Education, Budapest Hungary

Courses Taught at UC Davis

  • Education Policy: Concepts and Methods
  • Education Policy and Law
  • Politics of Education: Who Controls Schools?
  • Education Finance Policy
  • The Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education

Funded Research

  • Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: State Strategies to Improve Low-performing Schools: California’s High Priority Schools Grant Program
  • Office of the President, University of California. (With Rodney Ogawa) A study of the political and institutional forces that shaped UC’s current outreach efforts; institutional and organizational responses to outreach in the UC system.
  • Center for Studies in Higher Education, University of California, Berkeley. Study of other states’ policy responses to the elimination of affirmative action in university admissions.
  • National Science Foundation, Enhancing Math and Science Instruction: A Comprehensive Study of the Role of State Education Departments and Other Agencies.
  • Culpepper Foundation Gran: The Emerging State Role in Education Policy Making
  • Culpepper Foundation. School Restructuring and The Coalition of Essential Schools
  • Spencer Foundation Small Grant,The Politics of School Restructuring.
  • Southwest Bell Foundation. State policy and school restructuring.
  • Utah State Department of Education , Policy Evaluation of the Utah Career Ladder System.
  • California Post-Secondary Commission.(Co-Principal Investigator) Staff Development in California.