Professor Emerita
Sandra Stotsky is credited with developing one of the country’s strongest sets of academic standards for K-12 students as well as the strongest academic standards and licensure tests for prospective teachers while serving as Senior Associate Commissioner in the Massachusetts Department of Education from 1999-2003. She is also known nation-wide for her in-depth analyses of the problems in Common Core’s English language arts standards.
Her current research ranges from the deficiencies in teacher preparation programs and teacher licensure tests to the deficiencies in the K-12 reading curriculum and the question of gender bias in the curriculum. She is regularly invited to testify or submit testimony to state boards of education and state legislators on bills addressing licensure tests, licensure standards, and Common Core’s standards (e.g., Utah, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, South Carolina, and Texas).
She currently serves on several committees for the International Dyslexia Association and on the advisory board for Pioneer Institute’s Center for School Reform. She served on the National Validation Committee for the Common Core State Systemic Initiative (2009-2010), on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel (2006-2008), co-authoring its final report as well as two of its task group reports, on the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (2006-2010), and on the Steering Committee in 2003-2004 for the framework for the National Assessment of Educational Progress reading assessments for 2009 onward.
Her major publications include The Death and Resurrection of a Coherent Literature Curriculum (Rowman & Littlefield, 2012); Literary Study in Grades 9, 10, and 11: A National Survey (Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers, 2010); What’s at Stake in the K-12 Standards Wars: A Primer for Educational Policy Makers (Peter Lang, 2000); and Losing Our Language (Free Press, 1999, reprinted by Encounter Books, 2002).
Recent Professional Activities
- Interview with Sandra Stotsky. Education Views. April 2013.
- Robert Pondiscio, Gilbert T. Sewall, and Sandra Stotsky. Foreward by Walter A. McDougall. Shortchanging the Future: The Crisis of History and Civics in American Schools. Pioneer Institute White Paper 100, April 2013.
- Sandra, Stotksy, “Sandra Stotsky Discusses the Common Core (Video).” The Pioneer Institute. April 9, 2013.
- Sandra, Stotsky, Testimony for a Hearing in Arkansas for HB1590. March 28, 2013. (Appendix A and Appendix B)
- Sandra Stotsky, Invited Testimony for a Hearing in Michigan on House Bill 4276. March 20, 2013.
- Sandra Stotsky, Testimony for a Hearing on House Bill #616 and Senate Bill #210: Bills to prohibit the State Board of Education from adopting and implementing Common Core’s Standards and Tests. March 6, 2013.
- Sandra Stotsky, Invited Testimony for a Hearing on SB 167: A bill on Common Core’s Standards and Tests. February 28, 2013.
- Sandra Stotsky, Invited Testimony for Kansas on Common Core. February 14, 2013.
- Sandra Stotsky, An English Language Arts Curriculum Framework for American Public Schools: A Model, February 2013
- Sandra Stotsky. 2013. Why Do Education Schools Have Such Low Standards? Essay written for Minding the Campus.
- Anders Lewis and Sandra Stotsky. 2013. The Rise and Fall of the Study of American History in Massachusetts. Pioneer Institute White Paper No. 97.
- Sandra Stotsky. 2013. Literature or Technical Manuals: Who Should Be Teaching What, Where, and Why?. Paper presented at The Constitutional Coalition’s Educational Policy Conference.
- Sandra Stotsky. 2013. Why We Must Raise the Bar for Admission to an Education School. Paper given at the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy.
- Sandra Stotsky. Testimony before the Indiana Senate Committee on Education and Career Development. January 16, 2013
- Sandra Stotsky and George Denny. 2012. Single-sex classrooms and reading achievement: An exploratory study. Journal of School Choice: Research, Theory, and Reform, 6 (4), 439-464.
- Sandra Stotsky. Common Core Standards’ Devastating Impact on Literary Study and Analytical Thinking. The Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3800, December 11, 2012.
- Sandra Stotsky. Invited Testimony on the Low Quailty of the Common Core Standards. Testimony Submitted to Colorado’s State Board of Education, December 6, 2012
- Stotsky, Sandra. “Lessons to Learn: Teachers’ teachers responsible, too.” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, October 6, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra et al. ”Good Citizenship: To Preserve Republic, Teach Civics.” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, September 19, 2012.
- Mark Bauerlein and Sandra Stotsky. (September 2012). How Common Core’s ELA Standards Place College Readiness at Risk. Pioneer Institute White Paper No. 89.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “How Common Core Standards Have Begun to Damage the School Curriculum,” Heritage Foundation, April 17, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “Invited Comments on the Common Core Standards to the House Committe on Education in South Carolina,” South Carolina, April 18, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “The Serpent in Finland’s Garden of Equity,” Journal of School Choice: Research, Theory, and Reform, 6(2), 295-300.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “Invited Testimony for a Hearing on a South Carolina Bill to Amend 1976 Code,” February 16, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “Invited Testimony for a Hearing on Wisconsin Bill AB 558,” February 15, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “Invited Testimony for a hearing on Indiana Senate Bill No. 373,” January 25, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “Competition and Choice Bring Reform, but there’s a Problem,” February 9, 2012.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “The Last Word: An Interview with Sandra Stotsky–A Call for Challenge and Coherence (May 2011). Joe Helbling and Catherine A. Little.”
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2011. “The Stealth Curriculum,” in Sarah Stern (Ed.)Saudi Arabia and the Global Islamic Terrorist Network, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011, 65-80.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2011. “Tailoring to Students’ Interests”. Room for Debate, New York Times, August 23, 2011.
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2011. “Ten Steps to a Better ESEA (with apologies to the Fordham Institute): How to reauthorize ESEA so that it might actualy upgrade K-12 education. April 23, 2011.”
- Stotsky, Sandra. 2012. “Invited Testimony for a Hearing on Indiana Senate Bill No. 373 to Void Any Action Taken by the State Board of Education to Adopt the Common Core standards as the state’s standards,” January 25, 2012.
- Sandra Stotsky. How to Implement Common Core’s Literacy Standards to Enhance Civic Literacy in Arkansas. Presentation to Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators: August 2, 2011
- Sandra Stotsky, Heritage Foundation Event, July 27, 2011.
- Sandra Stotsky. “Testimony in Favor of Bill on Texas State Sovereignty over Curriculum Standards, Assessements, and Student Information,”Testimony for a Hearing on House Bill No. 2923, April 14, 2011
- Sandra Stotsky. “Literary Study in Grades 9,10, and 11: A National Survey” A Publication of the ALSCW, Number 4, Fall 2010.
- Sandra Stotsky and Ze’ev Wurman. “Common Core’s Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade,” A Pioneer Institute White Paper, No. 65, July 2010.
- Sandra Stotsky. “Literary Study in Grades 9, 10, and 11 in Arkansas,” March 22, 2010.
- Sandra Stotsky. “National Academic Standards: The First Test,” September 22, 2009.
- Sandra Stotsky. “Teachers’ Pet,” The Weekly Standard, Volume 015, Issue 01, September 12, 2009.
- Sandra Stotsky. “New Guidelines for Teacher Training,” September 1, 2009.
- Sandra Stotsky. “The Academic Quality of Teachers: A Civil Rights Issue,” Commentary, Education Week, June 26, 2009.
- Sandra Stotsky. “Licensure Tests for Special Education Teachers: How Well They Assess Knowledge of Reading Instruction and Mathematics,” June 26, 2009.
- Invited written statement submitted to the New Jersey State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. “Teacher Licensing Standards, Teacher Quality, and Student Achievement in Urban Schools,” May 2009
- Sandra Stotsky. “Suggested Indices of Teacher Quality for Arkansas: A Position Paper,” Presented at the Office for Education Policy’s Conference “Preparing Highly Qualified Teachers for Arkansas”, April 2009
- Sandra Stotsky. “The Bitter Fruit of School Reform,” The New York Times, April 28, 2009
- Sandra Stotsky. “The global achievement muddle,” Northwest Arkansas Times, March 17th, 2009
- Sandra Stotsky. “What boys are reading,” L. Sax (Ed.), Gender Differences in Learning and School; an Online Special Edition, January 15th, 2009
- Sandra Stotsky. “Licensure Tests for Special Education Teachers: How Well They Assess Knowledge of Reading Instruction and Mathematics,” Education Working Paper Archive, November 7, 2008
- Sandra Stotsky. “Out of one, many,” Arkansas Democrat Gazette, June 21st, 2008
- Sandra Stotsky. “Teacher Licensure Tests: Their Relationship to Mathematics Teachers’ Academic Competence and Student Achievement in Mathematics,” Education Working Paper Archive, September 5, 2007