Two Kennedy School professors are being considered for top jobs in the Clinton administration, according to one professor and a newspaper report.

The Boston Globe reported Saturday that Wiener Professor of Social Policy Mary Jo Bane and Wiener Professor of Public Policy David T. Ellwood '75 will be named to top positions at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

And in an interview yesterday, Ell-wood said he is a candidate for the position of assistant secretary for planning and evaluation at HHS but declined to comment further.

"At this time I know I am under consideration, but until [a decision] is announced I think it would be premature to comment on it," Ellwood said.

Currently on leave from the Kennedy School, Bane may be tapped for assistant secretary for children and families, according to Ellwood.

Bane, who joined the Kennedy School in 1981, is currently serving as the commissioner of Social Services for the state of New York, a post that she has held since 1991. She did not return a phone call yesterday.

Ellwood, a professor at the Kennedy School since 1980, is the author of "Poor support: Poverty in the American Family." In the book, Ellwood proposes to replace the cur- rent welfare system with efforts to encourage work and responsibility.

Bane and Ellwood worked together when Bane was the director of the Center for Health and Human Resources Policy at the Kennedy School