Sharon L. Nichols

Sharon L. Nichols is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She received a bachelor's in psychology from Bucknell University and her master's and doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. Her doctoral studies focused on adolescent motivation in middle school contexts.

Dr. Nichols received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Educational Policy Studies Laboratory at the Arizona State University to engage in research on high-stakes testing. There she was instrumental in producing technical reports on the impact of high-stakes testing on teachers, students, and schools. Her current work focuses on how high-stakes testing pressure affects novice and veteran teachers.

Dr. Nichols has authored over a dozen publications related to youth development, youth policy and motivation. She is co-author (with Thomas L. Good) of the book, America's teenagers-myths and realities: Media images, schooling, and the social costs of careless indifference. This book was published by Erlbaum in 2004.

Nichols is a consulting editor for the Journal of Experimental Education and for the last 3 years has served as chair (and co-chair) of the Adolescence Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association.

David C. Berliner

David C. Berliner is Regents' Professor of Education at Arizona State University. He received his bachelors degree from UCLA and his masters from the California State University at Los Angeles with psychology as his major. His Ph. D from Stanford University (1968) is in educational psychology, and he holds, as well, a Doctorate in Humane Letters, honoris causa. His work initially focussed on the study of teaching and teacher education before he moved into the area of educational policy.

His research has won him the Brock International Prize for educational research; the distinguished contributions award and the best book award from the American Educational Research Association; the E. L.Thorndike Award for lifetime contributions from the Division of Educational Psychology of the American Psychological Association; the Friend of Education award from the National Education Association; and the Medal of Achievement from the University of Helsinki. He is a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences; a member of the National Academy of Education; a past president of the American Educational Research Association; and a past president of the Division of Educational Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

Professor Berliner has been dean of the Mary Lou Fulton College of Education at Arizona State University and taught at the University's of Arizona, Massachusetts, Oregon, Fribourgh (Switzerland), Tasmania (Australia) and Leiden (The Netherlands). He has taught also at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, Stanford University, Monash University and Teachers College, Columbia University.

Among his recent authored and edited works are: The manufactured crisis (with Bruce J. Biddle), Educational psychology (6th ed.)(with N. L. Gage), Putting research to work in your schools (with U. Casanova), and the Handbook of educational psychology (with R. C. Calfee). Recent journal articles have been placed in the Teachers College Record, Educational Policy Analysis Archives, Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society, and the Educational researcher.

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