Speakers' Bios for Plenary Sessions
Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst
Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst was appointed in 2002 to a six-year term as the first Director of the Institute of Education Sciences—the research, evaluation, and statistics arm of the U.S. Department of Education. The Institute includes the National Center for Education Statistics, the National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, the National Center for Education Research, and the National Center for Special Education Research. Dr. Whitehurst previously served as Assistant Secretary for the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, the predecessor to the Institute.
Just prior to beginning federal service, Dr. Whitehurst was Leading Professor of Psychology and Pediatrics and Chairman of the Department of Psychology at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He also served on the faculty of the University of New South Wales in Australia and was Academic Vice President of the Merrill-Palmer Institute in Detroit. He was editor-in-chief of two leading scientific journals in his field: The Merrill-Palmer Quarterly of Behavior and Development, and Developmental Review.
During his career as a researcher, Dr. Whitehurst was the author or editor of five books and published more than 100 scholarly papers on language and pre-reading development in children. One of the techniques he developed, dialogic reading, is a widely used method of shared picture book reading that enhances children's language development. His work to identify preschool predictors of reading achievement has influenced curriculum for Head Start and pre-K programs and has led to the development of screening instruments to identify children with low levels of reading readiness. Throughout his academic career, his research focused on the development of knowledge and programs that might have a direct influence on the lives of children and families. Those goals continue in his role as Institute director.
Jay Mathews
Jay Mathews is an education reporter and columnist for The Washington Post. He has been with The Post for 36 years. He has reported from China and California, and covered the stock market in New York. He has written books about China, disability rights, the Los Angeles math teacher Jaime Escalante, and the lack of challenge in most American high schools. His rating system for U.S. high schools, the Challenge Index, has been cited in hundreds of newspapers and appears regularly in Newsweek; the latest list was released last May.
Mr. Mathews' books on the U.S. education system include one on college admissions entitled, Harvard Schmarvard: Getting Beyond the Ivy League to the College That is Best for You, and one co-authored with Ian Hill on the International Baccalaureate program entitled, Supertest: How the International Baccalaureate Can Strengthen Our Schools. He is currently writing a book on Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) schools in low-income neighborhoods throughout the country, and KIPP's two young founders.
His column, "Class Struggle," appears each Tuesday on The Post's website, http://www.washingtonpost.com. He won the Education Writers Association National Education Reporting Award for a series on retraining auto workers and the Benjamin Fine Award for Outstanding Education Reporting for both a feature story and a column on standardized testing. In 2005, Mr. Mathews received the Eugene Meyer Award, The Washington Post's top honor for distinguished service to the newspaper.
