University of Illinois at Chicago learning sciences researcher Susan R. Goldman has been elected to membership in the National Academy of Education.
Goldman, co-director of the UIC Learning Sciences Research Institute and distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences, psychology and education, is among 11 scholars to join the select group of about 200 who have earned academy membership based on their contributions to educational research and policy development.
Goldman’s research interests involve learning and assessment in subjects such as literacy, mathematics, history, and science, and the role of technology in learning and assessment. She is known for her research on text comprehension and learning strategies.
Her current research suggests that the country’s educational systems are not meeting the literacy challenges presented by today’s “knowledge society,” where multiple forms of information are readily accessible.
As principal investigator for a five-year, $19.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences, she leads a multi-institutional team that is developing instructional approaches that provide middle school and high school students opportunities to learn to read and critically evaluate multiple sources of information in history, science, and literature.
In addition, Goldman is examining how teachers use assessment for instructional planning in mathematics and literacy, and just completed work on a prototype web-based diagnostic reading assessment system to track comprehension of multiple sources of information.
She has also been involved in development of several technology-based environments for learning and assessment, including the math problem-solving series “The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury,” the Little Planet Literacy Series, and a “virtual peer” to support language development in kindergarten and first grade children from both English and Spanish language backgrounds.
Goldman, who came to UIC from Vanderbilt University in 2001, is a participant in Partnership READ, a reading demonstration project funded by the Chicago Community Trust and Chicago Public Schools. She is former chair of the Society for Text and Discourse and is president-elect of the International Society for the Learning Sciences.
She is the second member of the UIC faculty to earn membership in the academy. Her husband, James Pellegrino, co-director of the UIC Learning Sciences Research Institute and distinguished professor of liberal arts and sciences, psychology and education, was elected to the academy in 2007.
UIC ranks among the nation’s leading research universities and is Chicago’s largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state’s major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world.
Editor’s Note: Photos for download at newsphoto.lib.uic.edu/v/goldman+susan/