Robert Edward Slavin (September 17, 1950 – April 24, 2021) was an Americanpsychologist who studied educational and academic issues. He was known for theSuccess for All educational model. Until his death, he was a distinguished professor and director of the Center for Research and Reform in Education atJohns Hopkins University.

Robert Edward Slavin was born inBethesda, Maryland, on September 17, 1950.^[1] His father, Joseph G. Slavin, worked as a clinical psychologist and headed the Washington School of Psychiatry; his mother, Miriam Crohn Slavin, was a housewife. He was raised in nearbyChevy Chase, and attendedBethesda-Chevy Chase High School.^[2] He studied psychology atReed College, obtaining aBachelor of Arts in 1972.^[2][3] After teaching for a year at a school for children with disabilities, he went on to a PhD program atJohns Hopkins University, which he completed in 1975.^[2][3]

Slavin remained at Johns Hopkins as a research scientist after his PhD, and spent most of his career there; from 2004 he was a director at the Center for Research and Reform in Education at the same institution.^[3] He also held a position atYork University (simultaneous with Johns Hopkins) from 2007 until 2016, where he was founding director of the Institute for Effective Education.^[3][4] He was appointed the first Distinguished Professor at the School of Education at Johns Hopkins in 2020.^[5]

Together withNancy Madden, Slavin developed theSuccess for All model of reform for elementary and middle schools beginning in 1986, after being approached by the superintendent of the Baltimore school system for help with troubledinner city schools. As of May 2005, the program was used in 1,300 schools in 47 states. A meta-analysis of school improvement programs rated it favorably.^[6] However, most teachers participating in Success For All, even ones who strongly support the program, have been found to make substantial changes in implementation in contrast to the expectations of developers. Some teachers also reported that the program constrained their creativity and autonomy in their own classroom.^[7]

Slavin's work includes research on classroom cooperative learning techniques including his 1980 paper "Cooperative Learning".^[8] He has written surveys of the research literature on cooperative learning.^[9]

Slavin was a member of theNational Academy of Education since 2009.^[10] He received theE. L. Thorndike Award for Career Achievement from theAmerican Psychological Association in 2017,^[11]and the Distinguished Contributions to Research in Education Award from theAmerican Educational Research Association in 2019.^[12]

Slavin was married to Nancy Madden, his research partner, until his death.^[2][13]

Slavin died on April 24, 2021, at a hospital inBaltimore. He was 70, and suffered a heart attack prior to his death.^[2][13]

• Slavin, Robert E. (1995).Cooperative Learning: Theory, Research, and Practice. Allyn and Bacon.ISBN 978-0-205-15630-6.
• Slavin, Robert E.; Madden, Nancy A.; Chambers, Bette; Haxby, Barbara (2008).2 Million Children: Success for All. Corwin Press.ISBN 978-1-4522-9466-7.
• Slavin, Robert E. (2018).Educational Psychology: Theory and Practice (12th ed.). Pearson.ISBN 978-0-13-489510-9.

• 1950 births
• 2021 deaths
• Reed College alumni
• Johns Hopkins University alumni
• Johns Hopkins University faculty
• Academic staff of York University
• American educational psychologists

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