I serve on board of directors of the National Consortium for Specialized Secondary
Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology where I chair the technology committee,
co-chair the research committee, and work on the ad hoc strategic planning committee. We
are currently in the third year of work on a national study of intermediate-term
STEM-school graduate outcomes under the direction of Rena Subotnik at the APA and funded
by the NSF. I have also been exploring opportunities for work in national STEM education
policy and advocacy through the establishment and co-chairmanship of the Committee for
the Advancement of STEM Specialty Schools, and working as a member on the leadership
council of the STEM Education Coalition. 

I am currently working on several small projects involving student motivation and
persistence, the assessment of learner-centered practices, at-risk students in gifted
populations, as well as performance gap issues related to racioethnicity and gender. I am
also investigating the use of growth modeling with the IMSA population, and considering
its use with motivation constructs. 

I am beginning to look at applications of GIS in understanding long-term institutional
trends from a geospacial perspective, and as part of the EXCEL study I am isolating data
on students from small and rural schools. To do all of this I am using hierarchical
linear modeling, growth mixture modeling, and also trying to apply data mining techniques
that I have learned from AIR colleagues. 

Location

Palo Alto, CA

Disciplines

• Psychology
• Education

Affiliation

Palo Alto Unified School District

Website

http://www.kolar.org