Andrew Calvin Porter is the former Dean of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and also serves as Penn GSE's George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education. Porter is an educational psychologist and psychometrician who has made significant contributions to education policy and has published widely on educational assessment and accountability, teacher decisions on content and how curriculum policy effects those decisions, opportunities for students to learn and achievement indicators, measuring content and standards alignment, teacher professional development, educational research methodology, and leadership assessment. Porter's current work centers on the VAL-ED project, a research-based evaluation tool that measures the effectiveness of school leaders by providing a detailed assessment of a principal's performance funded by the US Department of Education/IES. Porter also works on two projects funded by the National Science Foundation that focus on the effects of teacher professional development on improving teaching and learning.
The Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Prize in Education is awarded annually by the Harold W. McGraw, Jr. Family Foundation and University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education to recognize outstanding individuals who have dedicated themselves to improving education through new approaches and whose accomplishments are making a difference in Pre-K-12 education, higher education, and learning science research around the world. The McGraw Prize was established in 1988 to honor Harold W. McGraw, Jr.'s lifelong commitment to education and literacy. In 2020 McGraw-Hill Education formed a partnership with Penn GSE to manage the annual McGraw Prize program.
The University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, commonly known as Penn GSE, is an Ivy League top-ranked educational research school in the United States. Formally established as a department in 1893 and a school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1915, Penn GSE has historically had research strengths in teaching and learning, the cultural contexts of education, language education, quantitative research methods, and practitioner inquiry. Pam Grossman is the current dean of Penn GSE; she succeeded Andrew C. Porter in 2015.
Teresa P. Pica, also known as Tere Pica, was Professor of Education at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, a post she held from 1983 until her death in 2011. Her areas of expertise included second language acquisition, language curriculum design, approaches to classroom practice, and classroom discourse analysis. Pica was well known for her pioneering work in task-based language learning and published widely in established international journals in the field of English as a foreign or second language and applied linguistics.
Susan Harriet Fuhrman is an American education policy scholar and served from 2006 as the first female president of Teachers College, Columbia University. Fuhrman earned her doctorate in Political Science and Education from Columbia University. She became very engaged in issues of educational equity and emerged as an authority on school reform. Fuhrman is known for her early and ongoing critical analysis of the standards movement and for her efforts to foster research that provides a scientific basis for effective teaching.
John Fantuzzo is the Albert M. Greenfield Professor of Human Relations at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and the Faculty Director of the Penn Child Research Center.
Douglas E. Lynch is an academic administrator and education entrepreneur who has made significant contributions to education innovation and also sparked controversy.
Yasmin B. Kafai is a German American academic who is Professor of Learning Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, with a secondary appointment in Computer and Information Sciences at University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science. She is a past president of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS), and an executive editor of the Journal of the Learning Sciences.
Review of Research in Education is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by SAGE Publications on behalf of the American Educational Research Association. It covers research in the field of education. The editors-in-chief for 2022 and 2024 are Ronald A. Beghetto and Yong Zhao. The 2023 and 2025 editors are Vivian L. Gadsden and David Osher. It was established in 1973. The 2021 editors are Greg Kazinsky, Ethan Paterson, and Robbert Snow.
Jeff MacSwan is an American linguist and educational researcher, working in the United States. He is currently Professor of Applied Linguistics and Language Education in the Division of Language, Literacy, and Social Inquiry in the Department of Teaching and Learning, Policy and Leadership at the University of Maryland. He is also Professor in the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program there, and Affiliate Professor in the University of Maryland Linguistics Department and Center for the Advanced Study of Language. He is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and of the National Education Policy Center (NEPC).
Daniel A. Wagner is the UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy, and professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, where his research specializes in learning, literacy, child development, educational technologies, and international educational development. He is founding director (1983) of Penn’s Literacy Research Center and the federally funded National Center on Adult Literacy (1990). In recent years, the center has become the International Literacy Institute (ILI), co-established by UNESCO and the University of Pennsylvania. Wagner is also the director of Penn’s International Educational Development Program (IEDP) and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Anthropological Association, and the American Educational Research Association. He is the author numerous books and articles on learning, literacy, cross-cultural research and methodologies, and is a frequent speaker at major national and international conferences across the world. He has worked as an advisor to, among others, the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID, and DFID. In 2012, Wagner was appointed by Hillary Clinton as a Member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO. In the same year, he was named UNESCO Chair in Learning and Literacy. In 2012-2014, he served as Chair of the Brookings Global Research Task Force on Learning. In 2014, he was a recipient of the UNESCO Confucius International Literacy Prize. He has maintained multi-year educational projects in India, South Africa, and Morocco.
Shaun R. Harper is an American scholar on racial equity in the United States. He is a Provost Professor in the Rossier School of Education and the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.
John L. Jackson Jr. is an American anthropologist, filmmaker, author, and university administrator. He is currently the provost and Richard Perry University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Jackson earned his B.A. from Howard University and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University. He served as a junior fellow at the Harvard University Society of Fellows before joining the Cultural Anthropology faculty at Duke University.
Kris D. Gutiérrez is an American professor of learning sciences and literacy. She currently holds the Carol Liu Chair in Educational Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and formerly held the Inaugural Provost's Chair at University of Colorado, Boulder. She is professor emerita of the University of California, Los Angeles. She has specialized in "culture and learning in urban schools," according to the Los Angeles Times. She is a member of the National Academy of Education. In April 2020, Gutiérrez was elected as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Lynn Fuchs is an educational psychologist known for research on instructional practice and assessment, reading disabilities, and mathematics disabilities. She is the Dunn Family Chair in Psychoeducational Assessment in the Department of Special Education at Vanderbilt University.
Vivian Maria Vasquez is a professor at American University's School of Education in Washington, DC. She is the author of eleven books and multiple chapters in other books, as well as many articles in professional journals.
Dr. Carol Diane Lee is an American professor, educational researcher, school director and author. Now retired, Lee was the Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education and Social Policy, Professor of Learning Sciences, and Professor of African-American Studies at Northwestern University. Her scholarly interests focus on the influences of culture and literacy on education, particularly among students in the African-American community. She chairs the Board of Director of the Betty Shabbazz International Charter School, an institution she helped found.
Deborah A. Thomas is an American anthropologist and filmmaker, and is the R. Jean Brownlee Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania. She has published books and articles on the history, culture, and politics of Jamaica; and on human rights, sexuality, and globalization in the Caribbean arena. She has co-produced and co-directed two experimental films, and has co-curated a multimedia exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. In 2016, she began a four-year term as editor-in-chief of the journal American Anthropologist. Before pursuing her career as an anthropologist, Thomas performed as a professional dancer with Urban Bush Women, a New York dance company that used art to promote social equity by illuminating the experiences of disenfranchised people.
Okhee Lee is an American education scholar and professor of childhood education.
Ebony Elizabeth Thomas is an American writer and educator who is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Education. Her research considers children's literature and fan culture. Her book, The Dark Fantastic, was awarded the 2020 Children's Literature Association Book Award.
