Losing Voices in Education: Jere Brophy and Gerald Bracey

This week, news of two deaths have created sadness and voids in the field of education. First, Jere Brophy, an educational psychologist at Michigan State University, passed away in his sleep. Brophy was a prolific scholar and the recipient of many awards for his research on teacher expectancy effects, classroom processes, and student motivation. Brophy had a knack for making complex concepts clear and accessible to audiences ranging from students to policy makers. As a result, Brophy's ideas were widely discussed and widely influential. He will be missed by all who knew him and his work.

On October 20th, Gerald (Jerry) Bracey passed away. When I started my career at Emory University, I had a conversation with Frank Pajares (another leading voice in educational psychology that we lost this year). I was complaining about the sorry state of public education in the U.S. Frank asked me how I knew public schools were doing poorly. "Everybody knows that" I told him. Indeed, it is largely taken as a given that public schools are failing, largely because the media gleefully reports the failings of public schools as often as they can. Frank said "There is no evidence that schools are doing any worse now than they ever have." I respected Frank as a scholar, but I thought he was crazy when he said this, and I told him so. So he gave me the first of Bracey's "Condition of Education" reports published annually in the Kappan. I was amazed by both the force of Bracey's writing style and the power of his evidence. I quickly became a fan of Bracey's and recommend and assign his articles and books regularly. (Take a look for yourself at his website: http://www.america-tomorrow.com/bracey/EDDRA/)

It has been a terrible year of loss in the world of educational research. Frank Pajares, Jere Brophy, and Gerald Bracey were three very different scholars, but they all shared three characteristics: A commitment to honesty, powerful and clear writing, and the ability to influence the thinking and perspectives of those who read their work or had the pleasure of talking to them in person. All will be missed.