Established 1988 · Penn GSE
Celebrating the World's Greatest Educational Innovators
The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education is one of the most prestigious honors in the field — often described as the Nobel Prize of education. Since 1988, it has recognized more than 100 exceptional leaders whose scholarship, policy, and practice have transformed how the world learns. Administered by the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, the Prize celebrates innovators across K-12, higher education, and lifelong learning who have expanded opportunity and improved outcomes for millions of students.
Categories of Honor
The whole arc of a learning life
Honoring those who reshape the earliest and most formative years of learning — classrooms, curricula, and the systems that hold them.
View laureates in this category1988 — Present
Nearly four decades of recognition
Lifelong Learning
Frederic Bertley
President & CEO, Center of Science and Industry (COSI)
Higher Education
Cathy N. Davidson
Distinguished Professor, Founder of the Futures Initiative, the CUNY Graduate Center, and Senior Advisor to the Chancellor, the City University of New York (CUNY)
K-12 Education
Rapelang Rabana & Joe Wolf
Co-CEOs, Imagine Worldwide
Global Impact
Influence measured in generations, not quarters
Countries represented
Laureates drawn from across the world
Universities & systems
Institutions reshaped by their work
Books & publications
A body of scholarship still in use
Policy influence
Reforms carried into national practice
Figures to be supplied from official Prize records.
The Prize endures because the work does.
The History of the PrizeNominations
Know an educator who has changed the field?
Each year, the Prize invites nominations for individuals whose work has transformed learning in K-12, higher education, or lifelong learning. Submit a candidate for consideration by the Penn GSE selection committee.
Nominate an Educator