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1999 Conference on Standards-Based K-12 EducationCalifornia State University Northridge |
Short Biographies of Speakers
Patrice Abarca is a third grade, bilingual classroom teacher, who teaches in the Los Angeles
Unified School District in an overcrowded year round school. She started teaching
in January 1975, and has taught at her present school, Heliotrope Elementary, since
January 1976. Patrice received her B.A. in English, K-9 Teaching Credential, and
her M.A. in Education with a specialization in Instructional Systems Technology from
California State University Long Beach. She received her Bilingual Certificate of
Competence in 1981. She is married to another bilingual elementary teacher. Patrice
has two children, one who is soon to enter high school and the other to enter middle
school. She is also an actively involved parent in her children's school.
Patrice combines public service with both her career and personal life. In November
1997 she was appointed to the California State Curriculum Development and Supplemental
Materials Commission. In that short time she has worked on three textbook adoptions
and is very proud of her involvement with the 1999 English Language Arts Framework.
Patrice is Vice Chair of the Commission's Language Arts Committee, and Chair of both
the Foreign Language and Ad Hoc Electronic Materials Committees.
Paul Clopton is a co-founder of Mathematically Correct, an organization of parents,
mathematicians, scientists, teachers, and others advocating for improvements in mathematics
education. Professionally, he is a statistician with the Department of Veterans Affairs
in San Diego where he works collaborates in biomedical research projects with the
faculty of the UCSD school of medicine. He also tutors students from the middle school
to the graduate school level in statistics and experimental design. He is Vice Chair
of the Education Technology Advisory Committee for California. He served as a member
of the Mathematics Content Panel that worked on the content of the augmented California
STAR mathematics exams and on the California Mathematics Curriculum Framework and
Criteria Committee. He has co-authored competitive Algebra exams for the Mathematics
Council of Western Pennsylvania, reviews of the statewide assessment system in Texas,
and several textbook reviews. Mr. Clopton served on the San Diego Mathematics Standards
Committee and on various mathematics textbook adoption committees. He has provided
testimony to the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce,
the National Research Council, and the National Assessment Governing Board, and met
with Richard Riley, Secretary of Education, to discuss mathematics education. He
has two children attending public school in San Diego.
Gayle Cloud holds a B.A. in English and a California teaching credential from Chapman
University. She has 6 public schooled children who have been her impetus for involvement
in the public school system. She has been School Site Council president, PTA President,
a member of Assemblyman Rod Pacheco's education committee and the state appointed
Instructional Materials Advisory Panel. She has been on several education panels,
including the National Education Goals Panel in Washington, D.C. Her concerns about
what is happening on the front lines of education have been included in several national
publications, including Newsweek, Business Week and USA Today.
Richard Lee Colvin has written about education for the Los Angeles Times, other newspapers
and magazines for more than 15 years. He has written about the educational systems
in Singapore and New Zealand and visited schools in most of the cities in the U.S.
He currently writes a twice-monthly column for the Times and covers national trends
and issues in education. He has a graduate degree in journalism from the University
of Michigan and undergraduate degree from Oberlin College in English and American
studies. He and his wife, Melissa Payton, have two children. Laura, a third grader,
and Timothy, a kindergartner, attend a public school in Pasadena.
Diana Dixon-Davis has served on school site councils and instructional cabinets for LAUSD
schools and has served as president, vice president, legislation chairman, and health
and safety chairman of local PTA's. She has served as an advisor for state senators,
an assemblyman, a city council member, and for various projects for LAUSD. She has
done extensive volunteer work for community groups in the San Fernando Valley including
for the Santa Susanna Mountain Parks Association, Smart Shuttle, Chatsworth Train
Depot Advisory Council, Chatsworth Arts Council, L.A. County Alcohol Policy Coalition,
West Valley Pool Safety Network, Friends of the Chatsworth Library, and many others.
She earned her B.A. in Anthropology with a math-science minor, and her M.A. in Demography
from U.C. Berkeley. She has been married for 27 years and is the mother of three
sons who attended LAUSD schools.
Bill Evers is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and teaches
public policy and American politics as an adjunct associate professor of political
science at Santa Clara University.
Bill is a member of the Advisory Board of the California History-Social Science Project.
The committee advises on proposals to improve the teaching of history and social
studies in Kindergarten through 12th grade in the public schools.
He also serves as a member of the History Content Review Panel for California's Standardized
Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessment system. This panel reviews all proposed test
items for the statewide tests in history and social studies given to California children
in the public schools, grades 2-11. During 1998, he was a member of the STAR Mathematics
Content Review Panel.
He served from 1996 to 1998 as a commissioner on the California State Commission
for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards. The California
state legislature created this commission and charged it with setting grade-by-grade
standards for reading, writing, mathematics, history-social studies, and science
in California's public schools. While a commissioner, Bill was on the committees
that developed the mathematics standards and the science standards.
He has also served since 1997 on the Board of Directors of the East Palo Alto Charter
School. He is on the steering committee of Honest Open Logical Debate on curriculum
reform (HOLD), a Palo Alto parents' group and is a co-founder of the Parents' Committee
for Middle School Choice, another local Palo Alto group.
Bill is the editor of and a contributor to the book, What's Gone Wrong in America's
Classrooms (1998) and the editor of Testing America's Schoolchildren (forthcoming
1999).
He is a graduate of Stanford University, from which he received both his bachelor's
degree and his Ph.D.
Valerie Fields was elected to the Los Angeles Board of Education on June 3, 1997, to serve
District 4, which encompasses West Los Angeles and the western portion of the San
Fernando Valley.
A former Los Angeles Unified School District elementary school teacher, Mrs. Fields
served as Mayor Bradley's education advisor and liaison to the LAUSD and Community
College District for more than fifteen years. Mrs. Fields staffed the Mayor's Education
Advisory Committee that established the APPLE Awards, given to outstanding teachers,
administrators, and volunteers of the LAUSD.
As a member of the Board of Education, Mrs. Fields serves on the following committees:
Chairperson of the Business and Operations/Personnel Committee, Audit Committee,
and the Legislation/Cities, Counties, and Community Relations Committee.
Chester E. Finn, Jr. is John M. Olin Fellow at the Manhattan Institute and President of the
Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, of which he is also a trustee. From 1995 through 1998,
he was a senior fellow of the Hudson Institute. From 1992 through 1994, he served
as founding partner and senior scholar with the Edison Project. He is on leave from
the faculty of Vanderbilt University where he has been Professor of Education and
Public Policy since 1981.
A native of Ohio with an undergraduate degree in American history, a master's degree
in social studies teaching and a doctorate in education policy and administration
from Harvard University, Finn has made his career in education and government service.
He served as Assistant Secretary for Research and Improvement and Counselor to the
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education from 1985 to 1988. Earlier positions
include Staff Assistant to the President of the United States; special Assistant
to the Governor of Massachusetts; Counsel to the American Ambassador to India; Research
Associate in Governmental Studies at the Brookings Institution; and Legislative Director
for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
He serves on a number of boards including the Center for Education Reform, the Foundation
for Teaching Economics and the Colorado League of Charter Schools, as well as the
advisory boards of the National Association of Scholars and the Center of the American
Experiment. From 1988 to 1996, he was a member of the National Assessment Governing
Board, including two years as its Chairman.
Finn has been a visiting lecturer in more than a dozen countries. His participation
in seminars, conferences and hearings has also brought him to colleges, education
and civic groups, foundations and government organizations throughout the United
States. His next book, Charter Schools in Action, co-written with Bruno V. Manno
and Gregg Vanourek, will be published by Princeton University Press in 1999. Other
titles among his eleven books include The New Promise of American Life, co-edited
with Lamar Alexander (Hudson Institute 1995); Radical Education Reforms, co-edited
with Herbert J. Walberg (McCutchan, 1994); Education Reform in the '90's, co-edited
with Theodor Rebarber (Macmillan, 1992); We Must Take Charge: Our Schools and Our
Future (Free Press, 1991); What Do Our 17-Year-Olds Know? (Harper & Row, 1987),
written with Diane Ravitch, and Scholars, Dollars and Bureaucrats (Brookings, 1978).
Author of about 300 articles, his work has appeared in such publications as The Weekly
Standard, The Christian Science Monitor, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The
Public Interest, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Harvard
Business Review, The American Spectator, The Boston Globe, and The New York Times.
Finn has received citations and awards for his work from the Educational Press Association
of America, Choice magazine, the Education Writers Association and the Freedoms Foundation
at Valley Forge.
He and his wife, Renu Virmani, a physician, have two grown children. They live in
Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Bonnie Grossen is a researcher in the College of Education at the University of Oregon.
Her research interests are focused in the area of teaching higher level thinking
to individuals with learning disabilities and at-risk students.. She is currently
principal investigator of an OSEP-funded three-year grant involving collaboration
between researchers and practitioners in implementing research-validated teaching
tools and practices to improve the learning of mainstreamed students with disabilities.
As a result of this collaborative project with the Sacramento School District, the
Sacramento County Office of Education, and the California State Department of Education,
a working demonstration site for middle schools serving at-risk populations has been
established at C.M. Goethe Middle School. C.M. Goethe is becoming a Professional
Development Center that (a) provides training and in-class coaching for other schools
in the area, and (b) provides a dissemination model that more reliably moves research-validated
practices into the field than the common written/verbal-presentation method found
at conferences and training institutes. Other schools are seeking to become "Beacon"
schools, following C.M. Goethe Middle School's lead. (For further information about
the project, contact Vicki Alterwitz, SCOE, 916-228-2633.)
Norman Herr (Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles) is Professor of Science
and Computer Education at California State University, Northridge, and a former high
school science department chair. He has also worked as a chemist, community college
science instructor, and consultant for the College Board's Advanced Placement biology
program. He has published numerous articles on his research in advanced science instruction
in American high schools, and has co-authored the Physical Science Curriculum Library
(1999, Prentice-Hall), a 1300-page resource for secondary school science teachers
that includes Hands-On Chemistry Activities with Real-Life Applications and Hands-On
Physics Activities with Real-Life Applications. Dr. Herr is the author and principal
investigator of 39 grants in science and computer education.
Day Higuchi
is president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) and has been a union activist
for more than 20 years. From 1990 to 1996 he was AFT Affiliate Vice President and
he has served as State Vice President for the California Federation of Teachers.
Mr. Higuchi has a B.A. degree and M.A. degree in Philosophy from UCLA and has teaching
credentials in Philosophy, Chemistry, Physical Science, Math, and English and Humanities.
He has 20 years experience as a middle high school teacher in East Los Angeles in
the subjects of Reading, Science, English, Social Studies, and Film-making. Day Higuchi
has made extensive contributions to School restructuring and Educational Reform.
He co-chaired the Guidelines Writing Committee for School-Based Management in Los
Angeles and is a LEARN Working Group Member. He also has served as Vice President
of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.
E. D. Hirsch, Jr., is the author of numerous books, including the bestsellers Cultural Literacy,
and The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Other books by E. D. Hirsch on related subjects
are: The First Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, and the Core Knowledge Series: What
Your First - Sixth Grader Needs to Know, and most recently, The Schools We Need and
Why We Don't Have Them. These works have influenced recent educational thought and
practice in the United States and other countries. Mr. Hirsch is a graduate of Cornell
University, and holds masters and doctoral degrees from Yale University. He began
his teaching career at Yale, specializing in Romantic Poetry and Literary Theory,
and in 1966 became Professor of English at the University of Virginia, where he served
twice as chairman of his department. Currently he is University Professor of Education
and Humanities. In 1977, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
and in 1997 to the International Academy of Education. He is the recipient of several
honorary degrees, has been a Fulbright and a Guggenheim fellow, a fellow of the Center
for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, a Humanities
Fellow at Princeton University, a fellow at the Australian National University, and
an honoree of the Royal Dutch Academy, and of the Academia Nazionale dei Lincei in
Rome. He has served on many advisory boards including the National Council on Educational
Research. E. D. Hirsch is founder and President of the non-profit Core Knowledge
Foundation, an organization that is exercising a growing influence on American educational
reform, with Core Knowledge schools in 40 states.
Bill Honig,
president of the Consortium On Reading Excellence, Inc., is the former State Superintendent
of Public Instruction for the state of California and is currently a Visiting Distinguished
Professor in the School of Education at San Francisco State University. He has been
active in school improvement work with Far West Laboratory for Educational Research
& Development and with New Standards, a collaborative project of states establishing
performance standards in four content areas. Mr. Honig authored Last Chance for Our
Children: How You Can Help Save Our Schools (1985); and an important book on reading,
How Should We Teach Our Children to Read: The Role of Skills in a Comprehensive Reading
Program-a Balanced Approach (1996), Corwin Press, 2455 Teller Road, Thousand Oaks,
CA 91320-2218, (805) 499-9774.
Dr. Sandra Horn began working with Dr. William L. Sanders, developer of the Tennessee Value-Added
Assessment System, shortly after TVAAS was officially adopted as the methodology
for estimating the effects of school systems, schools, and teachers on student outcomes
in the Educational Improvement Act of 1991. She has co-authored numerous publications
and presentations with Dr. Sanders on the subject of TVAAS and continues her work
as educational consultant to Dr. Sanders and the staff of the Value-Added Research
and Assessment Center (VARAC) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She also
serves on the Board of CREATE, The Consortium for Research on Educational Accountability
and Teacher Evaluation, and on the Tennessee State Board of Education's Advisory
Council for Teacher Education and Certification. She chaired the Ad Hoc Committee
for Library Information Specialist Licensure Standards for the Advisory Council.
In addition to her work in the field of educational assessment, Dr. Horn has been
a high school library information specialist with the Knox County Schools for twenty-five
years. Currently, she is the Head Library Information Specialist and Technical Coordinator
at South-Doyle High School in Knoxville. Her experience in the schools informs all
of her work in the fields of educational assessment.
Viken "Vik"
Hovsepian, a married father of two teenage girls attending
public schools in Glendale, is an award winning mathematics instructor who was recently
selected to the "ALL USA" first teacher team. He was the 1st Place recipient
of the prestigious Jaime Escalante Award of Excellence in Mathematics and a recipient
of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is the Department Chair
and teaches mathematics at Hoover High School in Glendale, and he is an adjunct professor
of mathematics at Pasadena City College.
Vik served as a member of the Mathematics Content Panel which worked on the content
of the augmented California STAR mathematics exams. He also served on the California
Mathematics Framework and Criteria Committee in writing the latest Mathematics Framework.
He is currently serving a four year term as a member of the Curriculum and Supplemental
Materials Commission appointed by the California State Board of Education. In addition
to these duties, because of his commitment to quality education for all youngsters
and to his heritage, he serves as the Chair of the Board of Regents of Armenian Prelacy
Schools in California. He continues, furthermore, to participate in local and national
mathematics conferences where he shares his presentation "Math is Fun."
When a youngster, Vik came to the United States from a developing country where a
national curriculum was in place. Individual voices in education were not heard,
and this is a primary reason he sincerely appreciates the democratic system of education
we enjoy here, and understands that this is why our system undergoes scrutiny, challenge,
and change. Vik sincerely enjoys the opportunities he has as an educator because
he views himself as a life-long learner and his classroom as his second home.
Nancy Ichinaga was born and raised on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. Her parents were immigrant
plantation workers from Okinawa, Japan. She was educated at Kekaha School and Waimea
High School, and Japanese Language Schools. Ms Ichinaga has a B.Ed. and fifth year
teaching certificate in secondary education for English and Social Studies. She earned
her M.A. degree in Educational Psychology from UCLA. She is an NDEA Fellow in Behavioral
Psychology--Cal State Hayward. She recently served on Governor Davis' Education Task
Force with Gary Hart. Nancy Ichinaga is one of six principals in the U.S. to receive
the Salvatori American Citizenship Award from the Heritage Foundation (May 19, 1999).
Ms Ichinaga served for 10 years as a classroom teacher in elementary and junior high
schools in Oakland and Los Angeles. For six years she was a school psychologist in
Inglewood, California. For the last 24 years she has been the principal at Bennett-Kew
Elementary School in Inglewood. Nancy Ichinaga has three adult children and five
grandsons. Her husband is an engineer.
Principal Ichinaga's personal statement on the History of Bennett-Kew Elementary
School:
When the scores of the first California Assessment Program at the third grade level
were released in October, 1974, I had been principal at Bennett-Kew for just a little
over a month. Bennett's third graders ranked at the 03%tile in the state. Reacting
with shock and dismay, I told the staff that the 03%tile meant that: 1) 90% of our
kids were retarded or 2) the Open Structure Program, in its fourth year at Bennett,
was not working. The teachers admitted that their program had created a school full
of illiterate children, and they were ready for a change. They agreed that they needed
to teach all children to decode and encode in a structured, systematic beginning
reading program. They also agreed that to make children truly literate, they needed
to expose them to the best of children's literature from all over the world.
We have been doing just that for the past 24 years. We ignored state mandates and
frameworks for bilingual education, whole language reading, new math, and continued
with what we believed was right for our school. We developed our own scope and sequence
in basic skills instruction with requirements for promotion, and in 1990, the last
year of the CAP, our third graders scored at the 78%tile in a composite reading,
language, and math score. We have received much attention for our success for teaching
our children who come from minority and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.
Carol Jago
teaches English at Santa Monica High School in Santa Monica, California and directs
the California Reading and Literature Project at UCLA. She also edits the California
Association of Teachers of English (CATE) quarterly journal, California English.
Carol writes a weekly education column for the Los Angeles Times, and her essays
have appeared in English Journal, Language Arts, NEA Today, The Christian Science
Monitor, as well as in other newspapers across the nation. She recently completed
her term as director of the National Commission on Literature currently serves on
Note's Secondary Section.
Marianne Jennings is a member of the Department of Business Administration in the College
of Business at Arizona State University, a professor of legal and ethical studies
in business and director of the Joan and David Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics.
Professor Jennings earned her undergraduate degree in finance and her J. D. from
Brigham Young University. She has worked with the Federal Public Defender and U.S.
Attorney in Nevada and has done consulting work for law firms, businesses and professional
groups including the National Leadership Institute, Dial Corporation, Motorola, the
National Association of Credit Managers, Mesa Community College, Southern California
Edison, the Arizona Auditor General, the City of Phoenix, Midwest Energy Supply,
Hy-Vee Foods, IBM, City of Tucson, Bell Helicopter, Amgen, VIAD, Finova, and the
Hispanic Women's Conference.
She joined the faculty at ASU in 1977 as an assistant professor. She was promoted
to associate professor in 1980 and to full professor in 1983. At ASU she teaches
graduate courses in business ethics, the legal environment of business, and strategic
legal planning. She has authored more than 130 articles in academic, professional
and trade journals. Currently she has six textbooks and monographs in circulation.
The third edition of her textbook, Case Studies in Business Ethics, will be published
in August 1998. The fourth edition of her textbook, Business: Its Legal, Ethical
and Global Environment was just published. The fifth edition of her textbook, Real
Estate Law will be published in August 1998 as well. She was added as a co-author
to Anderson's Business Law in 1997 for the 17th edition and to Anderson's Business
and the Regulatory Environment for the l3l' edition in l998. Her book, Business Strategy
for the Political Arena was selected in 1985 by Library Journal as one of its recommended
books in business/government relations. Her bi-weekly columns for The Arizona Republic
are syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in the Wall Street Journal,
the Chicago Tribune, Reader's Digest and newspapers around the country. A collection
of her essays, Nobody Fixes Real Carrot Sticks Anymore, was published in 1994. She
was given an Arizona Press Club award in 1994 for her work as a feature columnist.
She is a commentator on business issues on All Things Considered for National Public
Radio.
She has conducted more than 200 workshops and seminars in the areas of business,
personal and professional ethics, legal ethics, real estate, credit management, legal
issues for academic administrators, and law for the CPA. She has twice been named
professor of the year in the College of Business and was the recipient of a Burlington
Northern teaching excellence award. She was named a Wakonse Fellow in 1994 and was
named Distinguished Faculty Researcher for the College of Business that same year.
She has been a Dean's Council of 100 Distinguished Scholar since 1995.
She is a contributing editor for the Real Estate Law Journal and the Corporate Finance
Review. She has received nine research grants and was named outstanding professor
of the year in the College of Business in 1980 and 1985. In 1984, she served as then-Governor
Bruce Babbitt's appointee to the Arizona Corporation Commission. During 1986-1988,
she served as Associate Dean in the College of Business. From 1986-87, she served
as ASU's faculty athletic representative to the NCAA and PAC-1 0.
She is a member of twelve professional organizations, including the State Bar of
Arizona, and has served on four boards of directors. Currently she serves on the
Board of Directors for Arizona Public Service, Zealous Capital Corporation, and the
Center for Children with Chronic Illness and Disability at the University of Minnesota.
She served as chair of the Bonneville International Advisory Board for KHTC/KIDR
from 1994-1997 and was a weekly commentator on KGLE during 1998.
Personal data: Married to Terry H. Jennings, Maricopa County Attomey's Office; four
children: Sarah, Claire, Sam, and John.
Marion Joseph has served on the California State Board of Education since 1997. She formerly
served as executive assistant to State Superintendent of Schools Wilson Riles from
1970 to 1982. An educational leader for more than 35 years, Mrs. Joseph is nationally
recognized for her pioneering role in establishing essential basic reading requirements
for California public schools and for her leadership promoting phonics to improve
California's reading scores. Mrs. Joseph played an essential role in the design and
enactment of the landmark California Reading Initiative, working with the Governor
and Legislature to ensure passage of this critical 1996 Legislation. She was appointed
by Delaine Eastin to serve on the State Superintendent of Public Instruction's Reading
Task Force in 1994. She served as vice chair of the State Compensatory Education
Commission from 1965 to 1970 and was director of the Neighborhood Study Center Program,
working with the California State University-Los Rios Community College District,
from 1963 to 1970. Mrs. Joseph earned a bachelor's degree in political science from
the University of California, Los Angeles in 1947.
Jimmy Kilpatrick. For the past four years Mr. Kilpatrick has been actively involved in education
policy in Texas, in other states, and at the federal level. In 1996 he was instrumental
in changing the direction of the K-3 English Language Arts and Reading standards
in Texas.
Mr. Kilpatrick was formerly employed by the Charles A. Dana Center at the University
of Texas at Austin as a policy advisor and advisor for reading, reading disabilities
and parental involvement, to the Executive Director. He was recognized for his work
with the Houston ISD PEER (Peer, Examination, Evaluation, and Redesign) Committee
of Reading which established the nationally recognized reading policy for the Houston
School District.
Mr. Kilpatrick was chosen as Legislative Education Chairman, Texas Association of
Mexican-American Chambers of Commerce (TAMCC). He authored the TAMCC and League of
United Latin American Citizens' (LULAC) National Phonics Resolution.
James Kilpatrick was recently nominated for The National Association of State Boards
of Education Outstanding Policy Leader Award. He is the editor of EducationNews.org
as well as director of ReadbyGrade3.com and K-12Science.org
James Kilpatrick is a successful business owner of Roxbury Antiques, one of Houston's
oldest antique stores. He and his wife, Nora, have four sons and have resided in
Sugar Land and Fort Bend County since 1990.
Jeff Lee is Co-founder, Vice President, and Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education. AQE is a non-partisan non-profit organization which seeks to transform public education so that every child receives a quality education.
A parent of SDCS elementary and middle school students, Jeff Lee
understands public education issues and believes in the importance of a parent taking
a leadership role in their child's education. Jeff, along with his wife, Mitz, has
been active in public education issues for more than nine years, working to bring
a quality education to all children. This includes efforts at the school level, the
school district level and at the state level.
As the Vice President and Executive Director of the Alliance for Quality Education,
Jeff Lee uses his experience on education issues, school budgets, academic standards
and leadership to organize parent education sessions, interact with public officials,
coordinate with other local, state, and national educational organizations to advocate
for excellence in K-12 education for all children, and assist parents to become involved
in education reform.
Jeff Lee has served as a member of the State of California Governor's Roundtable
on Education, testified before the California Legislature on parent involvement and
education issues and appeared before the State of California Commission for the Establishment
of Academic Content and Performance Standards.
Jeff Lee has also been a guest on the "San Diego Headliners" television
program, and on the San Diego County Office of Education Instructional Television's
"Speaking of Schools" program. He is also the editor of Informed &
Involved, the AQE newsletter.
In addition to his work with AQE, Jeff Lee serves or has served in the following
education organizations:
School District:
Chair, Parent Involvement Task Force, San Diego City Schools
Vice Chair, Community Advisory Committee for Budget Development, San Diego City Schools
Member, Grade Level Standards Committee, San Diego City Schools Member, Vice Principal
Selection Board, San Diego City Schools
School Level:
Coach, Dingeman Elementary School Geography Olympiad Team
Coach, Dingeman Elementary School Math Olympiad Team
Principal-for-a-Day Program (1997)
Founding Member, Dingeman Family Faculty Organization (FFC)
Member, Marshall Middle School PTA
Member, Hage Elementary School PTA
Member, School Site Council (SSC), Wangenheim Middle School
Member, Teacher Screening Board for Marshall Middle School's Science and Language
Arts Lead and GATE teachers
Professional and Educational Background:
Participant, Education Leaders Council 1998 National Conference
Member, American Educational Research Association
MS - Systems Management
MA - International Relations
MA - National Security and Strategic Studies
Deming Management Training ("Total Quality Leadership" (TQL))
Drucker Foundation Training ("Leader of the Future")
U.S. Navy combat veteran
Adult Leader, Boy Scouts of America
Michael McKeown is a co-founder of Mathematically Correct, an organization of parents and
others working toward improving mathematics education. Dr. McKeown served as a member
of the committee which drafted the 1996 California Mathematics Program Advisory and
as a member of the committee which drafted the Mathematics Standards of Learning
for San Diego City Schools. Dr. McKeown also attended, at the request of the California
Academic Standards Commission, the workshop that drafted the initial portions of
the California Science Standards. In September of 1998, Dr. McKeown and Paul Clopton,
also a co-founder of Mathematically Correct, were invited to Washington by Richard
Riley, Secretary of Education, to discuss issues related to mathematics education.
Dr. McKeown was one of the co-authors of both the Mathematically Correct Algebra
I Reviews and the Mathematically Correct Mathematics Program Reviews for Grades 2,
5, and 7.
Dr. McKeown works as a faculty member at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies
in San Diego, California, where he studies the genetic control of development and
behavior. He is an adjunct faculty member in the Department of Biology at the University
of California, San Diego, where is the organizer and lead teacher of the graduate
level Advanced Genetics course.
Mathematically Correct is a nationwide organization dedicated to the improvement
of mathematics education. The membership spans the political spectrum. Good mathematics
instruction is not an issue of just one party or one political point of view. Mathematically
Correct supports high standards of learning and well designed, objective studies
to measure effectiveness of various programs and teaching methods. Members of Mathematically
Correct have contributed to the writing of the California Mathematics Standards,
the California Science Standards, the California Mathematics Framework, the California
STAR test, the California Mathematics Program Advisory and the San Diego City Schools
Mathematics Standards. They have also given invited testimony to committees of the
US House of Representatives, and both the California Assembly and Senate. Members
recently met, at his request, with Richard Riley, Secretary of Education, to discuss
key issues in mathematics education.
Stan Metzenberg is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at California State
University Northridge. He earned his B.A. degree in Mathematics and Biology at Reed
College in 1980, and his Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
in 1989. In 1998, he became a consultant for the California Commission for the Establishment
of Academic Content and Performance Standards, and helped to develop the new Science
Standards for the state.
R. James Milgram received his B.Sc., M.Sc. in Mathematics from the University of Chicago
in 1961, and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Minnesota in 1964. He
taught at Princeton University and the University of Illinois at Chicago in the 1960's,
and at Stanford University since 1969. Dr. Milgram has given numerous plenary lectures
at national and international conferences in mathematics and science as well as colloquiums
at most of the major universities on this continent and Europe. He held the Gauss
Professorship at U. of Gottingen and the Ordway Visiting Professorship at University
of Minnesota, and he visited the University of New Mexico for several years as Regents'
Professor in the early 1990's.
Professor Milgram became interested in problems with K - 12 mathematics education
in this country due primarily to experiences in New Mexico where he first came into
contact with otherwise bright and hard working students severely handicapped by weak
K - 12 mathematics educations. When he returned to Stanford he found that even the
students at Stanford appeared to have somewhat diminished skills in mathematics when
compared to their counterparts 15 - 20 years ago.
With colleagues at Stanford, Professor Milgram helped rewrite the new California
Mathematics Standards and with UC Berkeley Professor H. H. Wu, he helped write the
new California Mathematics Framework.
Janet Nicholas is a member of the California State Board of Education,
and the president and financial manager of Nicholas Vineyards, producer of Cabernet
and Merlot wine grapes in Sonoma County. She was twice elected to the Sonoma County
Board of Supervisors and served as a member of the State Board of Prison Terms during
1991-92. She was chair of the Commission on Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention,
was president of the Sonoma Valley Youth Advisory Council, and was founding chair
of the Sonoma County Jail Industries Commission. Mrs. Nicholas earned her bachelor's
degree in economics at the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied international
trade at Harvard University.
Veronica Norris, a registered nurse and an education law attorney, practices law in Tustin,
Ca. She represents students with general education, special education, and Zero Tolerance
legal issues. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from California
State University, Fullerton, with honors. She holds a Juris Doctorate from Loyola
Law School, Los Angeles. Ms. Norris has been a civil litigator, and serves as a technical
consultant on criminal homicide cases, drug cases, and alleged child abuse cases.
She also sits on the board of the Public Law Center of Orange County, a pro bono
legal services provider.
Ms. Norris serves on the Academic Standards Advisory Committee for Orange Unified
School District (OUSD), a volunteer advisory committee to the board that includes
teachers, administrators and community leaders. She got active in academic issues
when her own children, who attend public school, hit "New-New Math." She
led the movement to persuade the OUSD board to adopt the new California Standards,
which the board adopted in July 1998, and to provide for math choice so students
could return to traditional algebra instead of integrated math, which the board did
in April 1999. She remains a parent advocate to press for a return to quality math
and science programs, and accountability in her school district. She has served on
school site council, and currently serves on the PTA board.
Rollie Otto directs the Center for Science
and Engineering Education at the E.O. Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a position he
has held since 1988. Most of his time and attention is currently dedicated to the
California Subject Matter Project Internet Technology Initiative, sponsored by the
University of California Office of the President to extend and expand the work nine
teacher network and professional development subject matter projects. Rollie is the
consultant to the State Department of Education to work with the Science Curriculum
Framework and Criteria Committee drafting the K-12 Science Framework. He participated
in the writing of the K-12 Science Academic Content Standards as a consultant to
Academic Standards Commission. Rollie led the California Science Project as Executive
Director from 1995 to 1997 and as Executive Co-Director since 1997. Prior to this
he served as the Assistant Director of the Lawrence Hall of Science from 1996 to
1998. Rollie has a Ph.D. in Nuclear Science, and worked with Glenn Seaborg from 1974
to 1978 on the new element program. Rollie left research and took a position as Assistant
Director of the Energy and Environment Division from 1979 to 1985.
Michael Podgursky is Professor of Economics and Chairman of the Economics Department at the
University of Missouri - Columbia, a position he has held since 1995. Prior to that
he was a member of the Economics Department at University of Massachusetts at Amherst
(1980-1995). He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Wisconsin
- Madison in 1980. He has written numerous articles and reports on labor market topics.
He is coauthor of a recent book, Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality (1997), published
by the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research, which examines the effects
of the level and structure of pay, along with other personnel policies, on teacher
quality and performance in public and private schools. He has written numerous articles
and papers comparing personnel policy in public and private schools, analyzing the
economic effects of teacher training, testing, and licensing, and modeling the labor
market for teachers. Recent research analyzes the benefits and costs of national
accreditation of teacher training programs and national certification of teachers.
He is married and has two children attending public schools in Columbia, Missouri.
Martha Schwartz is a "lifelong learner," having received a B.S. degree in 1966
(Arizona State University, Mathematics), an M.S. in 1984 (California State University,
Long Beach, Geology - emphasis in applied geophysics), and Ph.D. in 1997 (University
of Southern California, Geophysics). Somewhere along the way she also completed a
UCLA recommended Standard Secondary Teaching Credential in Mathematics. She has a
variety of teaching experience, ranging from seventh grade mathematics to beginning
graduate level geophysics. Her three adult sons are graduates of neighborhood schools
in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Her grandson, Benjamin, age one, is just
now learning all about the fun of books. Her husband is Richard Schwartz, award-winning
high school chemistry teacher and member of the state Curriculum Commission.
Dr. Schwartz became alarmed at trends in education reform about five years ago, when
her husband's school district abruptly threw out high school biology and traditional
mathematics classes and instituted constructivist integrated science and "problem-based"
mathematics classes for all students. During the 1994-1995 school year she participated
with the "Concerned Parents of Torrance" in their successful efforts to
achieve choice in mathematics and science classes. In October of 1995, graduate student
Martha Schwartz met Dr. Mike McKeown, shared the Torrance success story, and Mathematically
Correct was born. Since that time, Dr. Schwartz has done whatever she can to further
the cause of effective educational programs for pre-college students. She served
on the committee which drafted the new California Mathematics Curriculum Framework,
worked extensively with Dr. Metzenberg on the new science standards, and recently
served on a panel for the State Board of Education, evaluating mathematics programs
for California's AB 2519 interim instructional materials adoption.
Sandra Stotsky is Deputy Commissioner of Academic Affairs and Planning at the Massachusetts
Department of Education. She is also a research associate at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education and director of two summer institutes there: one on civic education
for secondary school teachers of English and history, the other on the Constitution
and the Bill of rights for civics and government teachers. In 1996-1997, she served
as co-chair of the committee that developed English language arts/reading standards
for Massachusetts, and from 1997-1999, she served on a successor committee to develop
and monitor assessments based on these standards for grades 4, 8, and 10.
The author of many research reports, essays, and reviews in the English language
arts/reading, her most recent book is Losing Our Language: How Multicultural Classroom
Instruction Is Undermining Our Children's Ability to Read, Write, and Reason, published
by the Free Press in 1999. She also authored a monograph issued by the Thomas B.
Fordham Foundation in 1997 analyzing English language arts standards documents in
28 states. From 1991 to 1996, she served as editor of Research in the Teaching of
English, the research journal sponsored by the National Council of Teachers of English.
Dr. Justine Zhixin Su is professor of education and the Director for the China Institute at California
State University, Northridge. Her professional experiences also include a faculty
position at UCLA and an administrative post in the Chinese National Ministry of Education.
Her current teaching and research work covers the fields of teacher education, comparative
education, and educational policy studies. She has published numerous research papers
in both Western and Chinese educational journals and books, including Oxford Review
of Education, Comparative Education, International Review of Education, American
Journal of Education, Urban Education, Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of
Research and Development in Education, and the American Teacher Educators' Teacher
Education Yearbooks (1998, 1999).
William (Bill) Tarr is a CSUN alumnus (Biology) currently in the position of Science Adviser
for the Los Angeles Unified School District's Standards-Based Education Unit. This
unit's sole responsibility is for implementing curriculum, instruction and assessment
pre-K-12. Serving on the State Curriculum Framework and Criteria Committee for Science,
the State Instructional Materials Advisory Panel for Science, the Content Review
Panel for Science (STAR Augmentation), and the California Science Project adds to
his commitment to the quality of science education in California.
A classroom teacher for seventeen years, he has taught Marine Biology, AP Biology,
Honors Biology, and Advanced Physical Science within a Humanitas program. He was
the Leadership Coordinator for the UCLA/NSF "Leadership in Marine Science"
Teacher Enhancement Program, a Keck Research Fellow in Biotechnology at the California
Institute of Technology, a Student Research Director Fellow with Dr. Steven Oppenheimer
at CSUN, and was sent by the U.S. Department of Education to Brazil, where he wrote
curricular units of instruction integrating technology and people's impact upon the
environment.
David Tokofsky is a member of the Los Angeles Unified School District's Board of Education.
He taught Social Studies and English as Second Language courses at John Marshall
High School for 12 years. Mr. Tokofsky coached the Los Angeles Unified School District's
first National Academic Decathlon Championship Team in 1987. His Mock Trial teams
won several honors including the 1992 California State Championship as well as placing
second in the 1990 National Finals. He also coached soccer at John Marshal High School.
David has been actively involved in improving our schools at both the local and system
levels. He was active in drafting John Marshall's School-Based Management plan and
served on various governance committees during his tenure there. As a grant writer,
he secured $750,000 from a foundation for his high school to develop a Next Century
School. David also served on two working groups that helped to shape L.E.A.R.N. which
is Los Angeles's major reform effort.
David Tokofsky graduated with honors from the University of California at Berkeley
in 1983. He received degrees in both Spanish and History, earning honors in History.
David's research focused on traditionalist and radical responses to both commercial
and industrial revolutions. He earned his teaching credentials in History, Spanish,
and Social Studies from California State University, Northridge. He was first elected
to the LAUSD Board of Education in 1995.
The issues closest to David's Agenda are restoring a more traditional curriculum
and instruction methodology to the schools, including gifted education. He believes
in local decision making with strong direction and accountability from the Central
Offices. David supports a strong network of support services to instruction, including
a closer examination into the topic of the juvenile justice system. He wants to reform
the professional development infrastructure of teacher training and in-service, while
he opposes managerial driven merit pay systems. Above all, David believes that issues
of equity and access for students can be made compatible with excellence and achievement.
Cathy L. Watkins received her doctorate from the University of Florida in 1987. Dr. Watkins
is currently Associate Professor of Special Education and chair of the Department
of Advanced Studies. She serves as Coordinator of the Special Education Credential
Program and as Director of the Center for Direct Instruction. She is past president
of the California Association for Behavior Analysis and is a certified behavior analyst.
Dr. Watkins has conducted research in the areas of antecedent stimulus control, stimulus
equivalence, and acquisition of verbal behavior. She has published articles on Precision
Teaching, Direct Instruction, and fluency. Her analysis of Project Follow Through
has recently been published as a monograph.
Dr. Watkins primary interest is in identifying, analyzing, and disseminating measurably
effective teaching procedures. She has been an advocate for the rights of parents
and their children to receive effective education services and for teacher preparation
based on empirically validated instructional procedures. She supervises and trains
teachers at the University and in public schools and consults with individuals and
agencies on educational methods. She is a member of the California State Department
of Education's Special Education Literacy Steering Committee.
Hung-Hsi Wu
is professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the
author of several books in differential geometry, including General Relativity for
Mathematicians (with R.K. Sachs). He became interested in K-12 mathematics in 1992
and has written many articles on current mathematics education reform since then.
He is at present writing a monograph on the teaching of fractions for teachers in
grades 5-7. Professor Wu was on the panel which made up the augmented STAR test questions,
and one which screened mathematics textbooks for state-wide adoption. He also contributed
to the new California Mathematics Framework and is also co-Principal Investigator
of the California Mathematics Project.
Postal and telephone information:
1999 Conference on Standards-Based K12 Education
College of Science and Mathematics
California State University Northridge
18111 Nordhoff St.
Northridge CA 91330-8235
Telephone: (Dr. Klein: 818-677-7792)
FAX: 818-677-3634 (Attn: David Klein)
email: david.klein@csun.edu