Mark Berends

University of Notre Dame

Professor

Mark Berends is a professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests include school organization and classroom instruction and their relationship to student outcomes, with special attention to priority populations. His studies have included school choice, comprehensive school reform, ability grouping and tracking, the effects of family and school changes on student achievement trends, and the effects of schools and classrooms on student achievement and attainment. Within this agenda, he has applied a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods to understand the impact of school reforms on teachers and students. At Notre Dame, he has served as the Hackett Family Director of the Institute for Educational Initiatives (IEI), Associate Vice President for Research, director of the Center for Research on Educational Opportunity (CREO), and founding director of Notre Dame’s Program for Interdisciplinary Educational Research (PIER). Currently, Berends is conducting research on school choice, including an examination of the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program (voucher) and how school organizational and instructional conditions are related to student achievement gains in charter, private, and traditional public schools. His latest books are School Choice at the Crossroads: Research Perspectives (Routledge, 2019), Handbook of Research on School Choice, 2nd Edition (Routledge, 2020), the SAGE Handbook of the Sociology of Education (SAGE, London, 2024), and Opportunities for Learning: A Sociological Perspective by Maureen Hallinan (Notre Dame Press, 2025). Berends obtained his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.