A Northwestern University professor whose research shapes how urban school districts use evidence to improve classroom instruction has won the university's top research honor.

Cynthia Coburn, the Margaret Walker Alexander Professor of Learning Sciences and Human Development and Social Policy at SESP, received the 2026 Martin E. and Gertrude G. Walder Award for Research Excellence, the university announced on June 9. The award carries a $20,000 stipend.

Coburn studies how school district leaders make policy decisions, how instructional reforms spread and stick, and how researchers can partner with teachers and administrators to improve student outcomes. Her 2003 article "Rethinking Scale" argued that real educational change isn't measured by how many schools adopt a program but by whether that change runs deep, endures, and is owned by educators themselves.

SESP Dean Bryan McKinley Jones Brayboy, who nominated Coburn, called her "without hyperbole, the foremost scholar of research design in education on the planet."

Provost Kathleen Hagerty said Coburn's work enables evidence-based decision-making for teachers, school leaders, and district officials.

Coburn is currently working under a Heising-Simons Foundation grant to publish findings from two studies on how school districts can improve math instruction for children in pre-K through third grade. She also serves on the National Academy of Education Presidential Task Force on Knowledge Mobilization, which focuses on getting research findings into practitioners' hands.

Before entering academia, Coburn worked for a national nonprofit supporting low-income and minoritized communities pushing for better local schools. She earned her PhD in Education from Stanford and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2025.

She is the fourth SESP faculty member to win the Walder Award since its founding in 2002. Previous SESP recipients include economist Kirabo Jackson in 2018, Carol Lee in 2008, and Lindsay Chase-Lansdale in 2004.