Biography

Professor (by courtesy) of Education

An accomplished clinical teacher and litigator, William Koski (PhD ’03) is the founder and director of the law school’s Youth and Education Law Project (YELP). He and the students in the law project have represented hundreds of disadvantaged children and their families in educational equity, disability rights, and school reform matters. Professor Koski and YELP are currently representing more than 60 students from across California in the pathbreaking Robles-Wong v. California lawsuit that seeks to reform California's dysfunctional and insufficient K-12 public school finance system.

Reflecting his multidisciplinary background as a lawyer and social scientist, Professor Koski’s scholarly work focuses on the related issues of educational accountability, equity, and adequacy; the politics of educational policy reform; and judicial decision making in educational policy reform litigation. Professor Koski’s current research concentrates on the normative case for and policy implications of ensuring equality of educational opportunity in the current context of educational standards, adequacy, and accountability.

Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 2001, Professor Koski was a lecturer in law at Stanford and a supervising attorney at the law school’s East Palo Alto Community Law Project. He was also an associate at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe and then Alden, Aronovsky & Sax.

Professor Koski has an appointment (by courtesy) with the Stanford School of Education.

Key Works

• William S. Koski and Rob Reich, When "Adequate" Isn't: The Retreat from Equality in Educational Law and Policy and Why it Matters, 56 Emory Law Journal 545.
• William S. Koski, The Politics of Judicial Decision-Making in Educational Policy Reform Litigation, 55 Hastings Law Journal 1077-1233 (2004).
• William S. Koski and Hillary Anne Weis, What Educational Resources Do Students Need to Meet California's Educational Content Standards? A Textual Analysis of California's Educational Content Standards and Their Implications for Basic Educational Conditions and Resources, 106 Teachers College Record 1907-1935 (2004).
• William S. Koski, Of Fuzzy Standards and Institutional Constraints: A Re-Examination of the Jurisprudential History of Educational Finance Reform Litigation, 43 Santa Clara Law Review 1185-1298 (2003).
• William S. Koski, Educational Opportunity and Accountability in an Era of Standards-Based School Reform, 12 Stanford Law and Policy Review 301-332 (2001)
• Henry M. Levin and William S. Koski, Twenty-five Years After Rodriguez: What Have We Learned?, 102 Teachers College Record 480-513 (June 2000).

Courses & Programs

Courses

• Law, Litigation, and Educational Policy
• Youth and Education Law Project
• Youth and Education Law Project: Advanced

Programs

• Youth and Education Law Project, Director

Publications & Cases

Recent Publications View All

• William S. Koski, Courthouses vs. Statehouses? (Book review of: Schoolhouses, Courthouses and Statehouses: Solving the Funding-Achievement Puzzle in America's Public Schools by Erik Hanushek & Alfred A. Lindseth; and, Courts & Kids: Pursuing Educational Equity Through the State Courts by Michael A. Rebell.) 109 Michigan Law Review 923 (2011)
• Bill Koski, How the Governor Tried to Eliminate Mental Health Services for Schoolchildren, Silicon Valley Education Foundation's Thoughts on Public Education, November 27, 2010.
• Koski, Bill, Can We Sue Our Way Out of This Mess?, Silicon Valley Education Foundation's Thoughts on Public Education blog, September 28, 2010.
• William S. Koski, The Evolving Role of the Courts in School Reform Twenty Years After Rose, 98 Kentucky Law Journal 789 (2010)
• Alex Molnar, William S. Koski, Faith Boninger, Policy and Statutory Responses to Advertising and Marketing in Schools, Boulder: Education and the Public Interest Center, University of Colorado at Boulder; Tempe: Commercialism in Education Research Unit, Arizona State University, 2010.
• William S. Koski and Jeannie Oakes, Equal Educational Opportunity, School Reform, and the Courts: A Study of the Desegregation Litigation in San Jose, in From the Courtroom to the Classroom: The Shifting Landscape of School Desegregation, Claire E. Smrekar and Ellen B. Goldring, eds., Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press (2009).
• William S. Koski, School Finance, in The Chicago Companion to the Child, Chicago: University of Chicago Press (in press).
• William S. Koski and Jesse Hahnel, The Past, Present, and Possible Futures of Educational Finance Reform Litigation, in Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy, New York: Routledge, 2008.
• William S. Koski and Eileen Horng, Facilitating the Teacher Quality Gap? Collective Bargaining Agreements, Teacher Hiring and Transfer Rules, and Teacher Assignment Among Schools in California, 2 Education Finance and Policy 262 (2007).
• William S. Koski and Rob Reich, When "Adequate" Isn't: The Retreat from Equality in Educational Law and Policy and Why it Matters, 56 Emory Law Journal 545.

Affiliations & Honors

Professional Affiliations

• Referee (2006-Present), Teachers College Record
• Member (2005-Present), Board of Directors, Youth Law Center
• Member (2004-Present), Faculty Steering Committee, Haas Center for Public Service
• Member (2001-Present), Board of Directors, Stanford Public Interest Law Foundation
• Vice Chair (2005-2006), Faculty Steering Committee, Haas Center for Public Service

Honors and Awards

• Public Service Award (2007), IMPACT
• William R. Jentes Fellow (1990-93), University of Michigan Law School
• Recipient, Louis Honigman Memorial Award, University of Michigan Law School, 1993
• Recipient, E. Blythe Stason Award, University of Michigan Law School, 1993