Robert Pianta is the Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, as well as the Novartis US Foundation Professor of Education and a Professor in the Department of Psychology. He serves as Director of the National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education and the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning. Dr. Pianta's work focuses on policy and practice that enhance children's outcomes, school readiness, and later achievement. His recent work focuses on the assessment of teacher quality, teacher-child interaction, and child improvement, using standardized observational assessment and video feedback.
Dr. Pianta has published more than 300 scholarly papers and is lead author on several influential books related to early childhood and elementary education. He has recently begun work to extend his work into design and delivery of professional development using web-based formats and interactive video. Dr. Pianta received a B.S. and a M.A. in Special Education from the University of Connecticut, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, and began his career as a special education teacher.
Edna K. Shapiro (1925-2005), Distinguished Research Scholar Emerita, spent the greater part of her career at Bank Street College of Education, which recognized her work with an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 1993. Joining the Research Department in the 1950s, Edna and her colleagues conducted a major study examining whether and how different kinds of schools affected children's learning experiences. The collaborative product of that study, The Psychological Impact of School Experience, is considered a classic. Dr. Shapiro played a crucial role in developing and describing Bank Street≠s developmentalinteraction approach to the theory and practice of education, reflected in numerous articles and two co-edited volumes, Cognitive and Affective Growth (with Evelyn Weber) and Revisiting a Progressive Pedagogy (with Nancy Nager).