H. Gary Cook directs research for the WIDA Consortium and is a research scientist attached to the Wisconsin Center for Education Research. Dr. Cook received his Ph.D. in educational measurement, evaluation and research design from Michigan State University and has a master's in teaching English as a second language from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. He served as the Director of the Office of Educational Accountability for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. In this position, he directed the state's public school assessment programs. Subsequently, he worked at Harcourt Assessment, Inc. as the Vice President of State Accounts. In this role, Dr. Cook was responsible for consulting with state and national clients on assessments and assessment-related issues, especially as it relates to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. Most recently, Dr. Cook served as an embedded research scientist (akin to research manager) for the Milwaukee Public School system. Dr. Cook is a qualified and experienced Federal Peer Reviewer for NCLB. His recent research interests have focused on alignment of standards and assessments, policy issues associated with Title III accountability and applying value-added modeling techniques in urban settings to address key educational questions.

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Current Projects

Formative Language Assessment Records for ELLs (FLARE) in Secondary School

WIDA: World-Class Instructional Design and Assessment Consortium