Dr. Matthew Gardner Kelly
204F Rackley Building
University Park, PA 16802
Title
Assistant Professor of EducationDepartment
Education Policy StudiesPrograms
Educational LeadershipBiography
Matthew Gardner Kelly is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership. His research examines the social and political contexts of educational finance policies, past and present. He is principally interested in the history of resource disparities in education, the political dimensions of contemporary funding policies, and the interplay between geography, school finance, and inequality. Before earning his doctorate, Kelly was a teacher and instructional leader in the Harlem and Brownsville neighborhoods of New York City.
Areas of Expertise
Educational Studies
Leadership Preparation
Learning
Methodological Research
Organizational Management
Social Issues
Courses Taught
EDLDR 480, Introduction to Educational Leadership
EDLDR 540, Technology Applications in Educational Leadership
EDLDR 573, Public School Finance
EDLDR 873, Money and Schools: Perspectives, Finance Policies, and Leadership
EDLDR 841, Data Informed Leadership
Education History
Ph.D. (Educational Policy and History of Education), Stanford University; M.A. (History), Stanford University; B.A. (History), Bard CollegeRepresentative Publications
Kelly, M.G. (2020).‘Theoretically all children are equal. Practically this can never be so’: The history of the district property tax in California and the choice of inequality. Teachers College Record, 122 (2).
Kelly, M.G. (2019). A map is more than just a graph: Geospatial educational research and the importance of historical context. AERA Open, 5(1), 1-14.
Kelly, M.G. (2018). The deep and tangled roots of real estate markets, the state, and public education. Journal of Educational Administration and History, 50(3), 191-203.
Kelly, M.G. (2016). Schoolmaster’s empire: Race, conquest, and the centralization of common schooling in California. History of Education Quarterly, 56(3), 445-472.
- Awarded the History of Education Society Prize for best refereed article published in previous two years
Kelly, M.G. (2014). The mythology of schooling: The historiography of American and European education in comparative perspective. Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of Education, 50(6), 756-773.