The leader of a private foundation will focus on education reform when he presents the 20th Annual James P. Curtis Endowed Lecture this week. The lecture will be held Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Woodis-McDonald Auditorium in Graves Hall.

“Many researchers and policymakers assume that it is possible to reform education by ‘scaling-up’ reforms that are effective at small scale,” said Rebecca Ballard, director of college relations, in a written statement.

Scaling-up reforms is the underlying approach for much of the work at the National Institutes of Health, the Institute of Education Sciences, the federal department of education and several foundations.

Robert Granger, however, has his doubts about this approach. His lecture will illustrate his concerns about this approach, as well as offer an alternative that focuses less on model programs and more on the practices of the staff that interacts with the targeted youth.

Granger has been president of the William T. Grant Foundation since 2003. The primary goal of the foundation is to understand human behavior through research. The foundation is a private grant-making institution and currently funds high-quality empirical research, ultimately aiming to improve the lives of youth ages 8-25 in the United States.

“Today, the foundation continues to support high-quality research to improve the lives of youth,” Granger said on the foundation’s Web site. “The nation’s current climate presents serious challenges to our young people, their families, and the schools, communities and organizations that shape their lives.”

Granger recently chaired the National Board for Education Sciences, a presidentially appointed advisory panel of the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education that oversees federal activities regarding educational research. In addition, Granger serves on the editorial board for several professional journals and received his doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts.

The James P. Curtis Distinguished Lecture Series was created by the board of directors of the Capstone Education Society. Their goal in creating the lecture series was to bring an educator or public figure of renown to the campus each year to lecture about contemporary education issues.

The series was named in honor of James Curtis, a faculty member in the college of education for 23 years. Curtis served the University as professor of administration and educational leadership and assistant dean of the Bureau of Educational Services and Research.

“Curtis influenced the lives and careers of countless students who have become prominent educators throughout Alabama,” Ballard said.