Carol Lee elected president of the National Academy of Education

The School of Education and Social Policy’s Carol D. Lee, professor emeritus (the former Edwina S. Tarry Professor) of education and of African-American studies has been named president elect of the National Academy of Education. 

Lee is best known in academia for her work helping minority students excel in an environment of low expectations, poverty, negative stereotypes and other barriers. 

She was among the early scholars to explore ways to scaffold children's' everyday experiences as a resource for learning in school. Today her sophisticated ideas behind "cultural modeling" are a standard approach in the field. 

The National Academy, a highly prestigious organization limited to 200 U.S. members, is dedicated to advancing high-quality education research and its use in policy formulation.

She is also the author of two books, Culture, Literacy and Learning and Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation. Lee is a fellow of the National Conference of Research on Language and Literacy and a former fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences. 

Lee’s four-year term as president will begin in November 2021.