The author or editor of 18 books, he has been called “the intellectual father of the economic integration movement”[3] in K–12 schooling and “arguably the nation’s chief proponent of class-based affirmative action in higher education admissions.”[4] He is also an authority on housing segregation, teachers’ unions, charter schools, community colleges, and labor organizing.
[7] William Julius Wilson's review in The New York Times called it “by far the most comprehensive and thoughtful account thus far for...affirmative action based on class.” [8] Kahlenberg won the William A. Kaplin Award for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy Scholarship for his research on ways selective colleges can open the doors to more economically disadvantaged students.
William G. Bowen and Michael S. McPherson wrote that he “deserves more credit than anyone else for arguing vigorously and relentlessly for stronger efforts to address disparities by socioeconomic status.”[9] He served as an expert witness to the plaintiffs in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina.
Kahlenberg has been a nonresident scholar at Georgetown University's McCourt School of Public Policy, a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, a Fellow at the Center for National Policy, a visiting associate professor of constitutional law at George Washington University, and a legislative assistant to Senator Charles S. Robb (D-VA).
Kahlenberg's articles have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and The New Republic and he has appeared on ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, C-SPAN, MSNBC, and NPR.