C&I Feature

Dr. Stafford Hood named as new Curriculum and Instruction head

The College of Education is delighted to announce that Dr. Stafford Hood will be the inaugural Sheila M. Miller professor of education and new head of the department of Curriculum and Instruction, effective September 15, 2008.  An established nationally prominent scholar in program evaluation and assessment, Dr. Hood is often described as a change agent in the field of education.  The department of Curriculum and Instruction prepares undergraduate and graduate students to be professional teachers, teacher educators, and researchers in such areas as aesthetics education, bilingual/ESL education, children’s literature, content area knowledge acquisition and instruction (English, mathematics, science, and social studies), curriculum theory and development, early childhood and elementary education, literacy, multicultural education, teacher education, and technology.

After earning his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, he joined the Illinois State Board of Education.  As a program evaluation and assessment specialist, he pushed for  standardized test items on the teacher certification tests and student assessments that minimized cultural bias .  Dr. Hood also led drives to increase minority student participation in teaching education.  As an assistant professor of educational psychology at Northern Illinois University, Dr. Hood taught courses and conducted research on policy implementation issues relating to evaluation and testing.  He continued to serve the State of Illinois with his representation on state boards and commissions that dealt with technical issues in teacher certification testing and issues related to minorities.  Dr. Hood is co-founder and co-director of a well-regarded forum on the Relevance of Assessment and Culture in Evaluation (RACE), established in 2000.  This annual (now biennial) national conference brings together scholars, practitioners and students to discuss the social and political dimensions of assessment and evaluation policies.  Over the course of his career, Dr. Hood has secured numerous large grants from national organizations, including the National Science Foundation.

Most recently, Dr. Hood was the Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Psychology in Education at Arizona State University, where he spearheaded college-wide efforts to improve the quality and quantity of large-scale faculty generated research projects.  He received his B.A. in political science and his M.S. in counseling and guidance from the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater.