After teaching social studies and English in public schools located in New Jersey and Connecticut from 1965 through 1967, I enrolled in the M.A. and Ph.D. programs at the University of Connecticut where I received the ph.D. in 1971.I joined the faculty of the College of Education and Social Services in July, 1971, as the coordinator of laboratory experiences. In 1973 I collaborated with Dr. Donald Hillman in creating the Vermont Teacher Corps, serving as its director from 1973 through 1977.During 1977 I served as a visiting professor of education at Stanford University, returning to UVM to teach research methods in 1978.Throughout the 1980's I taught research methods and did research on school effectiveness.The decade of the 1990's saw my research and consulting shift to the fields of assessment and accountability, while I continued to teach research methodology to graduate students at the masters and doctoral levels. In 1990, for example, I headed a commission to establish the Vermont Assessment system.In 1999 I spent part of a sabbatical year at Oxford University studying school choice in England and preparing for an extended leave of absence.

During the first four years of the new century I served as deputy commissioner of education for standards and assessment for the State of Vermont while on a four-year leave of absence from the University.In the fall of 2004 I returned to teaching and research at UVM with an emphasis on research methodology, organizational change and assessment.



I am strongly committed to the equity agenda embedded in the new federal law, No Child Left Behind.While I believe that assessment and accountability are only partial solutions to the problems engendered by the unequal distribution of opportunities to learn for all students, I do believe that data based decisions about how to improve instruction and state, district and school level policy to support these changes are vitally important.



I currently serve on the board of directors for the Association for Effective Schools and regularly participate in activities of the American Educational Research Association and the National Research Council of the National Academies of Science.

I am currently engaged in research on:

• the mobility of students in Vermont schools, the relationship of early reading to mathematics achievement in later years,

• the design and evaluation of programs to enhance the mathematics content knowledge of elementary and secondary teachers, access to technical education in Vermont

•the design of school improvement programs to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind

•the design of programs of leadership preparation to enhance equity and social justicethe design of local assessment programs to prevent the narrowing of local curriculum

In addition, I have conducted research on school choice and drop-outs in Vermont.