Thomas W. Brock

Commissioner, National Center for Education Research

Thomas W. Brock is commissioner of the National Center for Education Research in the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Before being named NCER commissioner in January 2013, Brock was director of the Young Adults and Postsecondary Education Division at MDRC, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education and social policy research organization. He led higher education projects primarily focused on finding ways to increase academic achievement, persistence and completion among low-income college students. Under the auspices of the IES-funded National Center for Postsecondary Research, Brock oversaw evaluations of learning communities and summer enrichment programs for students in need of developmental education. He served in various capacities at MDRC—including research associate, management associate, special assistant for operations and development, and senior research associate—leading and directing implementation research on welfare reform and anti-poverty programs.

Earlier, Brock was an evaluation officer at the Wallace Foundation. He is nationally known for conducting rigorous evaluations and using mixed methods to understand community college reforms and other programs. He has written or coauthored numerous journal articles and publications on postsecondary education.

Brock holds a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Pitzer College, a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University and a doctorate in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles.