Christopher Lubienski is a professor of education policy at Indiana University, Bloomington, where he is also Director of the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education (US), and is a Fellow with the American Educational Research Association. He is also a Fellow at the National Education Policy Center, Guest Professor and Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Global Studies of Educational Leadership and Collaboration at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and adjunct professor at Murdoch University in Western Australia, where he also served as Sir Walter Murdoch Visiting Professor.
After receiving his Ph.D. in education policy at Michigan State University under David F. Labaree, Lubienski completed post-doctoral fellowships at the National Academy of Education and at Brown University under historian Carl Kaestle. He was also a Fulbright Senior Scholar in New Zealand, at the University of Waikato, and a Fellow for an invited writing residency at L’Institut d’études avancées de Paris / Paris Institute for Advanced Study.
Work
Lubienski's research examines the political economy of education, with a focus on equitable opportunities for all students. He has used organizational theory to examine charter schools, and is a proponent of geospatial analyses in education research. He coauthored, with Sarah Theule Lubienski, the book, The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools, which won a 2015 PROSE Award in the category of Education Theory. He has also been examining global education reform.Verger, A., Lubienski, C., & Steiner-Khamsi, G. (Eds.). (2016). The 2016 World Yearbook on Education: The Global Education Industry. New York: Routledge.
Lubienski has published several books and over 100 articles.
Books
Perry, L., Rowe, E., & Lubienski, C. (Eds.). (2024). Comparative Perspectives on School Segregation. London: Routledge.
Lubienski, C., Yemini, M., & Maxwell, C. (Eds.). (2022). The Rise of External Actors in Education: Shifting Boundaries Globally and Locally. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
Lubienski, C., & Brewer, T. (Eds.). (2019). Learning to Teach in an Era of Privatization: Global Alternatives and Teacher Preparation. New York: Teachers College Press. —winner, 2020 Critics Choice Book Award, American Educational Studies Association
Ndimande, B., & Lubienski, C. (Eds.). (2017). Privatization and the Education of Marginalized Children: Policies, Impacts and Global Lessons. New York: Routledge.
Verger, A., Lubienski, C., & Steiner-Khamsi, G. (Eds.). (2016). The 2016 World Yearbook on Education: The Global Education Industry. New York: Routledge.
Lubienski, C., & Lubienski, S. T. (2014). The Public School Advantage: Why Public Schools Outperform Private Schools. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. —2015 PROSE winner, American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence
Lubienski, C., & Weitzel, P. (Eds.). (2010). The Charter School Experiment: Expectations, Evidence, and Implications. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press.
Feinberg, W., & Lubienski, C. (Eds.). (2008). School Choice Policies and Outcomes: Empirical and Philosophical Perspectives. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Selected articles
Lubienski, C. (2023, March 8). School Choice Proposals Rarely Go before Voters – and Typically Fail When They Do. The Conversation. School choice proposals rarely go before voters – and typically fail when they do.
Perry, L., Rowe, E., & Lubienski, C. (2022). School Segregation: Theoretical Insights and Future Directions. Comparative Education 58 (1) 1–15. School segregation: theoretical insights and future directions
Malin, J. & Lubienski, C. (2022). Information Pollution in an Age of Populist Politics. Education Policy Analysis Archives 30 (94) https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.30.6144
Wilson, G. & Lubienski, C. (2022, April). Democratic Representation and Charter School Governance. Phi Delta Kappan 103 (7) 47–50.
Lubienski, C., Perry, L. B., Kim, J., & Canbolat, Y. (2022). Market Models and Segregation: Examining Mechanisms of Student Sorting. Comparative Education 58 (1) 16–36.
Castillo, E., Owens, S., LaLonde, P. DeBray, E., Scott, J., & Lubienski, C. (2021). E-Advocacy among Intermediary Organizational Networks: How Social Media Platforms Help Distribute Evidence. Urban Education 56 (4) 581–609.
Lubienski, C. & Malin, J. (2021). Moving the Goalposts: The Evolution of Voucher Advocacy in Framing Research Findings. Journal of Education Policy 36 (6) 739–759.
Malin, J., Potterton, A., & Lubienski, C. (2021). Language Matters: K-12 Choice-Favoring and Public-Favoring Stories. Kappa Delta Pi Record, 57 (3) 104–109.
Lee, J. & Lubienski, C. (2021). A Spatial Analysis on Charter School Access in the New York Metropolitan Area. Teachers College Record, 123 (2) 1–30.
Hedges, S., Winton, S., Rowe, E., & Lubienski, C. (2020). Private Actors and Public Goods: A Comparative Case Study of Funding and Public Governance in K-12 Education in Three Global Cities. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 52 (1) 103–119. DOI: 10.1080/00220620.2019.1685474
DeBray, E., Hanley, J., Scott, J., & Lubienski, C. (2020). Money and Influence: Philanthropies, Intermediary Organizations, and Atlanta's 2017 School Board Election. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 52 (1) 63–79. Money and influence: philanthropies, intermediary organisations, and Atlanta’s 2017 school board election
Malin, J. R., Lubienski, C., & Mensa-Bonsu, Q. (2020). Media strategies in policy advocacy: Tracing the justifications for Indiana's school choice reforms. 2020 Politics of Education Yearbook/Educational Policy, 14(1), 118–143. Media Strategies in Policy Advocacy: Tracing the Justifications for Indiana’s School Choice Reforms Perry, L. B., & Lubienski, C. (2020). Between-School Stratification of Academic Curricular Offerings: School Decision-Making, Curriculum Policy Context, and the Educational Marketplace. Oxford Review of Education, 46 (5) 582–600. DOI: 10.1080/03054985.2020.1739012 Lubienski, C., Brewer, T.J, & Kim, J.A. (2019; published 2020). Privatisation et logique marchande dans l'éducation aux États-Unis. Revue Internationale d'éducation de Sèvres, 82, 57–66.
Lubienski, C., & Malin, J. (2019, June 7). School Vouchers Expand Despite Evidence of Negative Effects. The Conversation School vouchers expand despite evidence of negative effects
Malin, J., Hardy, I., & Lubienski, C. (2019). Educational Neoliberalization: The Mediatization of Ethical Assertions in the Voucher Debate. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40 (3), 217–233.
Lubienski, C., & Perry, L. (2019). Third-Sector Competition, Innovation, and Diffusion: How Schools Interact Across and Within Sectors. Journal of Educational Administration, 57(4), 392–344.
Rowe, E., Lubienski, C., Skourdoumbis, A., Gerrard, J., & Hursh, D. (2019). Exploring Alternatives to the 'Neoliberalism' Critique: New Language for Contemporary Global Reform. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40(2), 147–149.
Rowe, E., Lubienski, C., Skourdoumbis, A., & Hursch, D. (2019). Templates, Typologies and Typifications: Neoliberalism as Keyword. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40 (3), 150–161.
Waitoller, F., & Lubienski, C. (2019). Disability, Race, and the Geography of School Choice: Towards an Intersectional Analytical Framework. AERA Open, 5(1).
Yoon, E., & Lubienski, C. (2018). Thinking Critically in Space: Toward a Mixed-Methods Geo-Spatial Analysis. Educational Researcher, 47 (1), 53–61.
Lubienski, C. (2018). The Critical Challenge: Policy Networks and Market Models for Education. Policy Futures in Education, 16 (2), 156–168.
Yoon, E., Gulson, K., & Lubienski, C. (2018). A Brief History of the Geography of Education Policy: Ongoing Conversations and Generative Tensions. AERA Open, 4 (4), 1–9.
Yoon, E., Lubienski, C., & Lee, J. (2018). The Geography of School Choice in a City with Growing Inequality: The Case of Vancouver. Journal of Education Policy, 33 (2), 279–298.
Verger, A., Steiner-Khamsi, G., & Lubienski, C. (2017). The Emerging Global Education Industry: Analysing Market-Making in Education through Market Sociology. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 15 (3), 325–340.
Lubienski, C., & Lubienski, S. T. (2017, June 16). Why School Vouchers Aren't Working. Education Week, 36 (36) 28.
Rowe, E., & Lubienski, C. (2017). Shopping for Schools and Shopping for Peers: Public Schools and Catchment Area Segregation. Journal of Education Policy, 32 (3), 340–356.
Gulson, K., Lewis, S., Lingard, B., Lubienski, C., Takayama, K., & Webb, T. (2017). Policy Mobilities and Methodology: A Proposition for Inventive Methods in Education Policy Studies. Critical Studies in Education, 58 (2), 224–241.
Yoon, E., & Lubienski, C. (2017). How Do Marginalized Families Engage in School Choice in Inequitable Urban Landscapes? A Critical Geographic Approach. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25 doi: 10.14507/epaa.25.2655.
Lubienski, C., & Lee, J. (2017). Potential Uses of Mixed Methods GIS in Educational Research. Geographical Researcher, 55 (1) 89–99.
Lubienski, C. (2017). Neoliberalism, Resistance, and Self-Limiting Language. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 25 (60) http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.25.2991
Scott, J., DeBray, E., Lubienski, C., LaLonde, P., Castillo, E., & Owens, S. (2017). Urban Regimes, Intermediary Organization Networks, and Research Use: Patterns across Three School Districts. Peabody Journal of Education, 92 (1), 16–28.
Lee, J., & Lubienski, C. (2017). The Impact of School Closures on Equity of Access in Chicago. Education and Urban Society, 49 (1) 53–80.
Perry, L. B., Lubienski, C., & Ladwig, J. (2016). How Do Learning Environments Vary by School Sector and Socioeconomic Composition? Australian Journal of Education, 60 (3), 175–190.
Lubienski, C., & Brewer, T.J. (2016). An Analysis of Voucher Advocacy: Taking a Closer Look at the Uses and Limitations of "Gold Standard" Research. Peabody Journal of Education, 91(4) 455–472.
Lubienski, C. (2016). Sector Distinctions and the Privatization of Public Education Policymaking. Theory and Research in Education, 14 (3) 192–212.
Lubienski, C., Brewer, T.J., & Goel La Londe, P. (2016). Orchestrating Policy Ideas: Philanthropies and Think Tanks in US Education Policy Advocacy Networks. Australian Education Researcher, 43 (1) 55–73.
Lubienski, C., & Lee, J. (2016). Competitive Incentives and the Education Market: How Charter Schools Define Themselves in Metropolitan Detroit. Peabody Journal of Education, 91 (1) 64–80.
Rogers, J., Lubienski, C., Scott, J., & Welner, K. (2015). Missing the Target? The Parent Trigger as a Strategy for Parental Engagement and School Reform. Teachers College Record, 117 (6) 1–36.
Scott, J., Jabbar, H., LaLonde, P., DeBray, E., & Lubienski, C. (2015). Evidence Use and Advocacy Coalitions: Intermediary Organizations and Philanthropies in Denver, Colorado. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23 (124).
LaLonde, P., Brewer, T. J., & Lubienski, C. (2015). The Proliferation of Teach For America around the Globe: Cloning Corporate Reform through Teach For All. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23 (47).
Malin, J., & Lubienski, C. (2015). Educational Expertise, Advocacy, and Media Influence. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 23 (6).
Jabbar, H., Goel, P., DeBray, E., Scott, J., & Lubienski, C. (2014). How Policymakers Define "Evidence": The Politics of Research Use in New Orleans. Policy Futures in Education, 12 (8) 1013–1027.
Gulson, K., & Lubienski, C. (2014). The New Political Economy of Education Policy: Cultural Politics, Mobility and the Market. Knowledge Cultures, 2 (2) 170–180.
Lubienski, C. (2014). Re-Making the Middle: Dis-Intermediation in International Context. Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 42 (3) 422–439.