Matt Gandal

Matt Gandal founded Education Strategy Group in 2012 to advance economic prosperity in the U.S. by strengthening and aligning our education and workforce systems. He brings more than 30 years of national, state, and local experience leading policy development, advocacy and implementation work across the K-12, higher education, and workforce sectors. He also currently serves as a columnist for Forbes, covering innovations in education that increase economic competitiveness and expand economic mobility.

Gandal previously served as a senior advisor to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, where he led a new division responsible for driving ambitious policy change and providing implementation support to states and communities pursuing those reforms. As part of the Race to the Top initiative, Gandal worked with governors, state and local education leaders, and other key stakeholders to increase educational standards and raise the performance of schools to ensure students graduated well prepared for their next steps. He also served as a member of the Secretary’s Advisory Team that met regularly with the Secretary to take stock of progress and establish priorities for the Department of Education.

Before joining the Department of Education, Gandal was executive vice president of Achieve, the national organization formed by governors and business leaders to help states raise educational standards. He helped found the organization and was responsible for overseeing its major initiatives, including the American Diploma Project which helped 35 states advance college and career readiness policies and National Education Summits that brought together governors, CEOs and education leaders from across the country to commit to ambitious reforms.

Prior to joining Achieve, Gandal was assistant director for educational issues at the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). He helped AFT launch a variety of programs and publications designed to support standards-based reform efforts in states and school districts. He was the author and chief architect of Making Standards Matter, an annual AFT report evaluating the quality of the academic standards, assessments, and accountability policies in the 50 states. He also authored a series of reports that compared student standards and achievement in the United States with those of other industrialized nations. Gandal also held a leadership position with the Educational Excellence Network, an education policy think tank founded by Checker Finn.