Internationally Renowned Scholar on Educational Reform to Speak at VCU

By Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education

Peter Smagorinsky, Ph.D., professor of language and literacy education at the University of Georgia, who is among the world’s most authoritative and prolific voices for educational reform, will deliver the VCU School of Education John S. Oehler Lecture for Educational Leadership at Virginia Commonwealth University.

His lecture, “Authentic Teacher Evaluation: A Two-Tiered Proposal for Formative and Summative Assessment,” takes place Wednesday, April 10, from 5 to 6 p.m. in the VCU Sports Medicine Building, 1300 W. Broad St.

Smagorinsky is a Distinguished Research Professor of English Education in the College of Education at UGA. He is a scholar of international renown in his own field and in the related fields of cultural psychology, communication, human development, composition and rhetoric. His scholarship seeks not only to refine the theory of human development but also to inform evidence-based practice.

He is the 2012 recipient of the Sylvia Scribner Award and the 2009 recipient of the Edward B. Fry Book Award.

Gabriel Reich, Ph.D., assistant professor in the VCU School of Education’s Department of Teaching and Learning, will deliver a response to the lecture. Reich’s research interests focus on historical consciousness, the assessment of historical understanding and high-stakes accountability policy. He has authored a number of articles for journals such as the Journal of Curriculum Studies and Theory and Research in Social Education.

The Oehler lecture is held in honor of John S. Oehler, Ed.D., who served for 16 years as dean of the School of Education and provided more than 30 years of service to VCU. It is presented by the VCU School of Education through the John S. Oehler Lecture for Educational Leadership endowment fund.