Pitt's Learning Policy Center to Open 2008-09 Colloquium Series With Lauren Resnick, Noted Educational Research Scientist

PITTSBURGH-The University of Pittsburgh Learning Policy Center (LPC) will open its 2007-08 Colloquium Series: Excellence and Equity in an Era of Accountability with Lauren Resnick, University Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science and senior scientist and project director in Pitt's Learning Research and Development Center (LRDC), from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Sept. 23 in Room 5604 Posvar Hall, 230 S. Bouquet St., Oakland.

The event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is required at www.education.pitt.edu/respond/index.aspx?id=34%20.

Resnick's presentation is titled "Standards-Based Reform: A Powerful Idea Unmoored." She will provide an overview for the goals of excellence and equity in education, how the goals developed and became entwined with the standards movement and "No Child Left Behind," and whether the goals were accomplished and at what cost. She also will offer recommendations for adjusting standards-based efforts to improve American education.

A national leader and mentor and former director of Pitt's LRDC, Resnick has shared her expertise through books, journals, and conferences. She led the development of standards for school learning that have been adopted by most states.

Resnick also founded and directs LRDC's Institute for Learning, which fosters school reform through professional development for educators. The institute has achieved national recognition for helping to improve the academic performance of children in urban school districts throughout the United States.

Resnick is founding editor of "Cognition and Instruction" and the more recent Research Points, a quarterly brief for education policymakers published by the American Educational Research Association (AERA) that strives to link educational research to critical issues of education policy, a vital precept of the federal "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2002.

A past president of AERA, Resnick has been awarded honorary doctorates by two European universities. Among her many awards and honors are the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction Oeuvre Award for outstanding contributions to the science of learning and instruction, the American Psychological Association's (APA) Edward L. Thorndike Award for distinguished contributions to psychology of education, and APA's 2007 Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training Award. She is a lifetime national associate of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, a member of both the U.S. National Academy of Education and the International Academy of Education, and a fellow of both the APA and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Resnick earned the A.D. degree in history at Radcliffe College in 1957, graduating magna cum laude with the Radcliffe History Prize; the A.M. degree in teaching at Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 1958; and the Ed.D. degree in research in instruction at Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 1958.

The mission of Pitt's LPC is to advance ideas that encompass both education policy and research on teaching and learning. The LPC utilizes Pitt's School of Education, Learning Research Development Center, Institute for Learning, and other regional assets to connect high-quality learning research with education policy decision makers.

For more information about Resnick's presentation and the colloquium series, visit www.lpc.pitt.edu/index.php/content/view/colloquium.

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9/17/08/tmw