College of Education
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http://education.illinois.edu/epol/frp/cspan
Faculty Research Profiles: Christopher Span
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Associate Dean for Academic Programs
Student Academic Affairs Office
120 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
Champaign, IL 61820USA
217 333-2800
Associate Professor
Education Policy, Organization and Leadership
350 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
Champaign, IL 61820
217 333-0807
Section Links
Research Biography
I am an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am an historian of education in the department of Educational Policy Studies. My research interests pertain to the educational history of African Americans in the 19th and 20th century.
Degrees
- Ph.D., Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2001
- M.A., Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1998
- B.A., Liberal Arts and Sciences/ History, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1995
Key Professional Appointments
- Faculty Athletics Representative for the Big Ten, Office of the Chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011--
- Associate Dean for Academic Programs, College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011--
- Associate Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 2009--
- Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2003-2009
- Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy, State University of New York-Buffalo, 2001-2002
- Assistant Professor, History, Millikin University, 2000-2001
- Teaching Assistant, Educational Policy Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1998-1999
Activities & Honors
- Secretary, Division F (AERA) (2012-2014), AERA-Division F (History), AERA, 2012-2014
- CIC Academic Leadership Fellow—ALP (2010-2011)., Committee on Institutional Cooperation , 2010-2011
- Difference Makers in Our Community Award, eBlack Champaign-Urbana Campus Community Project, 2010
- Dean's Fellow, College of Education, Dean's Cabinet, 2010
- Editorial Board, American Educational Research Journal-Social and Institutional, Editorial Board, American Educational Research Journal-Social and Institutional Analysis, American Educational Research Journal, 2009-2012
- Board Member, Don Moyers' Boys and Girls Club, 2009-2010
- Distinguished Scholar Award, College of Education, 2009
- Participating Historian on the Brief of Historians as Amicus Curiae for the Supreme Court Parents and Meredith (2007) case, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, 2007-2008
- Black Graduate Student Association Faculty of the Year Award, Black Graduate Student Association, 2007
- Co-Editor, History of Education Quarterly, 2006-2013
- Outstanding Reviewer Award and Recognition for American Educational Research Association Journals, AERA, 2006
- Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, 2004 - 2011, Incomplete List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by their Students, 2003-2011
Selected Publications
- Span, Christopher M. and Rivers, Ishwanzya D. “Reassessing the Achievement Gap: An Intergenerational Comparison of African American Student Achievement before and after Compensatory Education and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).” Teachers College Record Online, 114(6) (April, 2012): 13-14, http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 16690, Date Accessed: 5/6/2012.
- Span, Christopher M. From Cotton Field to Schoolhouse: African American Education in Mississippi, 1862-1875. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. More about this publication...
- Danns, Dionne and Christopher M. Span (2008). “A Brief History of Schools in the United States,” in Tom Goodes (Ed.) 21st Century Education (New York: Sage Publication, 265-273.
- Span, C. M. (2003). Knowledge is light, knowledge is power: African American education in antebellum America. In C. C. Yeakey & R. D. Henderson (Eds.), Surmounting all odds: Education, opportunity, and society in the new millennium. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
- Span, C. M. (2002). "I must learn now or not at all": Social and cultural capital in the earliest educational initiatives of Mississippi ex-slaves, 1862-1869. Journal of African American History, 87(3), 196-205.

