International Encyclopedia of Education, Volume 9

Peterson was awarded the Raymond B. Cattell Early Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) in 1986 for her programmatic research on effective teaching and learning. She went on to serve as president of AERA from 1996-1997, and is also a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. As AERA president, Penelope led initiatives to reform the organization and to synthesize research-based knowledge, making it more useful to policy makers and practitioners.

More recently, Peterson has served as a member of the National Academy of Sciences Study Panel on the "Science of Learning," which produced the volume, How People Learn-a comprehensive study of learning, based on a synthesis of the research on cognition, cognitive neuroscience, learning, and the design of educational environments that foster effective learning.

Peterson’s current research interests are in learning and teaching in schools and classrooms, particularly in literacy and mathematics; student and teacher learning in reform contexts; and relations among educational research, policy, and practice.

Dr. Baker was a congressionally appointed member of the National Council on Education Standards and Testing and serves on the Independent Review Committee on the Evaluation of Title I Testing. She is currently co-chair of the committee to revise the standards for Educational and Psychological Testing and is a member of the Advisory Committee on Educational Statistics (ACES) for the National Centre for Education Statistics.

Dr. Baker has previously served as president of the Educational Psychology Division of the American Psychological Association, National Officer in the American Educational Research Association, and editor of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.

Her research at the Center for the Study of Evaluation addresses assessment and accountability models, the design and validation of technology-based learning and assessment systems, and new models to measure complex human performance in large-scale assessments.

Dr. Baker is involved in international, national, and state policy deliberations on assessment.

Dr. McGaw is a Fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia, the Australian Psychological Society, and the Australian College of Educators. He received an Australian Centenary Medal “for distinguished service through educational research and policy” in 2003.

Dr. McGaw graduated in chemistry from the University of Queensland in Australia and completed his PhD in educational psychology and psychometrics at the University of Illinois in the USA. He has previously held the post of President of the Australian Association for Research in Education and the International Association for Educational Assessment. Dr. McGaw has also served as Executive Director of the Australian Council for Educational Research (a not-for-profit company with an international research and development program) and as Professor of Education at Murdoch University in Perth, Western Australia.

Dr. McGaw’s research interests are in educational measurement and learning. He has had extensive experience in issues of curriculum and assessment in the upper secondary years, including selection procedures for higher education. He chaired governmental review committees dealing with these issues in two Australian states and, in a third, acted as sole reviewer and author of a public discussion document and a report with