Edward Fiske

In 1980, when he was education editor of the New York Times, Edward B. Fiske sensed that college-bound students and their families needed better information on which to base their educational choices. Thus was born the Fiske Guide to Colleges. A graduate of Wesleyan University, Fiske did graduate work at Columbia University and assorted other bastions of higher learning.

He left the New York Times in 1991 to pursue a variety of educational and journalistic interests, including a book on school reform, Smart Schools, Smart Kids. When not visiting colleges, he can be found playing tennis, sailing, or doing research on the educational problems of South Africa and other third world countries for UNESCO and other international organizations. Fiske lives in Durham, N.C., near the campus of Duke University, where his wife, Helen Ladd, is a member of the faculty. They are coauthors of When Schools Compete: A Cautionary Tale, Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa, and Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy.