S. Paul Reville, Secretary of Education

As Secretary of Education, Paul Reville directs the Executive Office of Education and works closely with the Commonwealth’s education agencies – Department of Early Education and Care, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Department of Higher Education and the University of Massachusetts system - while serving as a voting member of the governing board of all four education agencies. He is the Governor’s top advisor on education and helps shape the Commonwealth’s education reform agenda including the recent Achievement Gap Act of 2010 – the most sweeping education legislation since the landmark Education Reform Act of 1993. 

Prior to joining the Patrick Administration, Reville served as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Prior to his appointment as Secretary, Reville was the Director of the Education Policy and Management Program and a senior lecturer on educational policy and politics at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and was also the founder and president of the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy.  Reville was also the executive director of the Pew Forum on Standards-Based School Reform, a think-tank, research and advocacy initiative that helped shape the national standards movement.

Reville has played a leading role in education reform in Massachusetts since the 1980s. He has been a teacher and an administrator, led business efforts to advance education and, as co-founder of the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, was deeply involved in the design and implementation of the Education Reform Act of 1993, the Commonwealth’s landmark initiative to establish standards and accountability.  He is a national leader on time and learning, labor-management relations in education, educational improvement and community engagement.

Reville, a former VISTA volunteer, teacher and principal of two alternative schools, is a graduate of Colorado College, holds a Master's degree from Stanford University and several honorary doctorates.  He is an author and frequent speaker on education issues.

Finally, he is a public school parent who lives in Worcester. He has four children.