FAYETTEVILLE,
Ark. — When she was senior associate commissioner at the Massachusetts
Department of Education, Sandra Stotsky was responsible for strengthening the
academic standards for students and prospective teachers. Four years later,
Massachusetts’ scores for reading and math in grades 4 and 8 on the National
Assessment of Educational Progress tests led the nation.
Now, Stotsky will
examine issues surrounding teacher quality in Arkansas. The University of
Arkansas recently appointed her to the Twenty-First Century Chair in Teacher
Quality, one of six endowed chairs in the department of education reform in the
College of Education and Health Professions.
The education
scholar, researcher and consultant has written or co-written four books, more
than 50 articles and more than 100 scholarly publications. She has taught at
every educational level and was a research scholar or research associate at
Northeastern, Boston and Harvard universities. She serves on the National
Mathematics Advisory Panel, a group appointed by President Bush to work with
the U.S. Department of Education to make recommendations to Secretary of
Education Margaret Spellings on ways to improve mathematics education in K-12.
University
officials welcome Stotsky to the fifth of the six endowed chairs in the
department of education reform.
“Having Dr. Stotsky
join the faculty is an important part of our effort to build a body of research
that can inform national, state and local policymakers as they work to improve
the education system,” said Reed Greenwood, dean of the College of Education
and Health Professions.
“Sandra Stotsky is an invaluable addition to
our department, university and the state of Arkansas,” said Jay P. Greene, the
department head and holder of an endowed chair in education reform. “She
combines extensive practical experience in improving teacher quality with
highly rigorous research in the field.”
When Stotsky
served as a high-level administrator for the state of Massachusetts from 1999
to 2003, she directed complete revisions of the state’s licensing regulations,
licensure tests for K-12 educators and preK-12 standards for mathematics,
history, civics, geography, economics, English, reading, science, preschool and
instructional technology.
The revised
standards, which were judged by independent experts as some of the best in the
country in terms of quality and rigor, are considered to be a major factor
accounting for the state’s leading position on both the reading and math tests
for grades 4 and 8 given by the National Assessment of Educational Progress in
2005.
“I came to
Arkansas because holding this chair affords me a fantastic opportunity to study
teacher quality,” Stotsky said. “I will be able to accomplish many things that
I’m interested in. With this chair, I can do research that can lead to sound
policies on teacher preparation and professional development and improve public
education for all students. Teacher quality is a critical piece of the
educational system.”
She proposed a
research agenda that includes studying the content of subject-specific methods
courses that prospective math and science teachers take, assessing the impact
of student teaching on a teacher’s future performance, and examining what
current licensure tests of teacher skills assess and how they make a difference
in the quality of pre-service programs. Stotsky is also interested in what
difference a mathematics textbook can make and how professional development
affects a teacher’s performance.
Stotsky also has
experience developing and directing large-scale research projects. From 2000 to
2002, she directed a $2 million intervention project using National Science
Foundation funds that investigated whether the use of six highly experienced
mathematics coaches working with Massachusetts teachers in low-performing
middle schools could improve teachers’ knowledge of math and their students’
mathematics achievement.
Her doctor of
education from Harvard University is in reading research and education, but
Stotsky explained that her experience with developing state standards crosses
disciplinary boundaries.
“A state department
of education is not a bystander when it comes to education standards,” she
said. “It plays a major role in providing the legal framework for the
preparation of teachers, whatever subjects they will be teaching.”
Stotsky also
emphasized her interest in a multidisciplinary approach to teacher preparation.
She wants to learn about all areas of the University of Arkansas that have an
impact on future teachers.
“I’m very attuned
to looking across the university to all academic disciplines and their role in
the preparation of teachers,” she said.
Stotsky has also
been active in community organizations and leadership. In her leisure time, she
practices the piano and looks forward to playing in classical chamber music
groups.
For 20 years,
Stotsky has directed summer institutes on civic education to help U.S. history
and government teachers learn more about the country’s seminal political
documents and principles.
In December 2006,
she served as the lead consultant to a UNESCO curriculum project to help officials
in the Afghanistan Ministry of Education revise and update the syllabi for
their entire secondary curriculum. She has also worked as a consultant for the
U.S. Information Service helping Eastern European ministry officials and
teachers develop democratically oriented school curricula and teacher
preparation programs in civic education.
The department of
education reform was created in July 2005. A $10 million private gift was
combined with $10 million from the university’s matching gift program to endow
the department, which focuses on five priority areas: teacher quality,
leadership, policy, accountability and transparency, and school choice. The
leadership chair is open.