P. David Pearson
Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of Education,
University of California, Berkeley
P. David Pearson serves as Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley, and as a professor in its Language and Literacy program. At Berkeley, he conducts a line of research related to issues of reading instruction and assessment at local, state, and national levels. Before coming to Berkeley, he served as the John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor of Education in the College of Education at Michigan State; as co-director and principal investigator of the Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement; and as dean of the College of Education, co-director of the Center for the Study of Reading, and professor of curriculum and instruction at the University of Illinois.
Professor Pearson has been active in many professional organizations and has served as president of both the National Reading Conference and the National Conference of Research in English. His awards include the National Reading Conference's Oscar Causey Award, the International Reading Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit, and the Alan Purves Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. In 2003, he was elected to the National Academy of Education. Dr. Pearson's publications include the Handbook of Reading Research and, most recently, an edited volume with Barbara Taylor on Effective Schools and Accomplished Teachers. He has served on the boards of Reading Research Quarterly, Journal of Literacy Research, Review of Educational Research, Journal of Educational Psychology, Cognition and Instruction, Research in Teaching English, and Visible Language, and as editor of Reading Research Quarterly, NRC Yearbook, and Review of Research in Education. Before receiving his Ph.D., Professor Pearson taught elementary school in California.
