Proof Points: Tribute to a Johns Hopkins researcher

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By Jill Barshay

I usually write about education research studies, not people. But I was personally affected by the unexpected death of Johns Hopkins professor Robert “Bob” Slavin on April 24. He was one of those academic researchers who was generous with his time with the education press, seeing it as part of his job to help us translate research findings into prose that teachers can understand. He helped me to appreciate the importance of writing about meta-analyses rather than the latest study, which can contradict the previous study and confuse people. He was a ravenous reader of research and I consulted with him regularly for column ideas and for help understanding research that he wasn’t involved in at all. It’s hard to imagine Proof Points without Bob around to help guide me.

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Key Points

Slavin’s latest work focused on making the case for intensive, daily tutoring for millions of children from low-income families as a way to make up for the months of missed school during the coronavirus pandemic.
He co-founded “Success for All,” a school reform program, which has served over 3 million children in 2,000 schools. It’s known for teaching reading to low-income children in urban elementary schools.
He was a leader of a movement to improve the quality of education research and for schools to use scientific evidence to guide instruction.