02/14/95

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New dean announces review of School of Education's goals

STANFORD -- Richard J. Shavelson was invested as the eighth dean of the Stanford School of Education on Monday, Feb. 13, at a ceremony in which Provost Condoleezza Rice announced that the widow of a former dean of education had endowed the deanship.

Shavelson, who came to Stanford from the University of California- Santa Barbara, where he was also dean, told a Cubberley Auditorium gathering of faculty, students, staff and area educators that the School of Education will conduct a "self-study" over the next six months "with the goal of formulating a five-year plan to take us into the 21st century." He also will form a dean's advisory council composed of scholars, alumni and leaders in education, business and the community.

"The study will examine every aspect of the school - faculty, staff, students, as well as relations with the university and wider community," Shavelson said. "We plan to enlist an external review team to give us a useful outside perspective. We would like to involve business and community leaders, alumni and friends of the school in the process as well."

The new dean also said that he expected the school to expand joint academic and research programs with other schools on campus, "possibly with the Graduate School of Business on educational linkages in the workplace, with the School of Engineering on linking technology with educational advances, with the School of Law in studying the impact of litigation on the course of the education enterprise, and with the School of Humanities and Sciences in teaching the subject matters."

Shavelson, who received his doctorate in educational psychology from Stanford in 1971, is an expert on the measurement of performance in education and training. He will be the first holder of the I. James Quillen Endowed Deanship, named in honor of the late Isaac James Quillen, who served as the school's dean from 1952 until 1966. Quillen, who died in 1967, "changed the focus of the School of Education by bringing social scientists to the school to integrate educational research with theory in their disciplines," Shavelson said. The late Viola Quillen, wife of Dean Quillen, completed funding for the deanship upon her death in January.

The Stanford School of Education has 401 students who come from a variety of fields and countries. The school's 40 faculty members are engaged in research projects and collaborations with schools, private business, non-profit organizations and government agencies with the overall goal of influencing classroom practice and education in general. The previous dean of education at Stanford, Marshall S. Smith, left in 1993 to become undersecretary of education. Professors Nel Noddings and Myra Strober served as interim acting deans.

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