PHILADELPHIA -- Andrew C. Porter, the Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Leadership Policy and Organization and Director of the Learning Sciences Institute at Vanderbilt University, has been named Dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania.  He will begin Aug. 1.

A nationally known scholar and educator, Porter is an expert in quantitative methods.  He also has a deep understanding and appreciation for the important role that historical and qualitative approaches play in understanding the processes of education and human development.

"Andy Porter has a broad and inspiring vision of the role that a leading school of education can play in today's world -- locally, nationally and globally.  He is enthusiastic about building upon Penn GSE's impressive contributions to educational research, teaching, practice and policy and expanding GSE's interdisciplinary collaborations across Penn," Penn President Amy Gutmann said.

Porter received his B.S. in 1963 from Indiana State University and his M.S. in 1965 and Ph.D. in 1967 in educational psychology from the University of Wisconsin.  In 1988, he returned to the University of Wisconsin as Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.  Porter has been at Vanderbilt since 2003.  

"Andy Porter's energy, experience and enthusiasm are the perfect catalyst to lead GSE into an even brighter future," Penn Provost Ron Daniels said.

A former President, in 2001, of the American Education Research Association, Porter was elected a member of the National Academy of Education in 1994, has been Vice President of the Academy since 2005 and is a Lifetime National Associate of the National Academies.

A native of Huntington, Pa., Porter is a present or past member of a dozen scholarly editorial and advisory boards, including the Journal of Teacher Education, the American Educational Researcher, Educational Researcher, the Teachers College Record, the American Journal of Education, the Review of Educational Research, Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, the Journal of Education Statistics, the Review of Research in Education, the Journal of Education Research, Evaluation Quarterly and the American Education Research Journal.  He has also served as Chair of the Publications and Editorial Advisory Board of the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.  A prolific scholar, he is the author or co-author of 38 book chapters, more than 50 scholarly articles and dozens of technical reports.

Penn's Graduate School of Education is consistently ranked in the U.S. News & World Report's top 10 nationally.  The school plays a central role in educational-reform efforts in Philadelphia and an increasingly significant role in national policy discussions on the reform of American elementary, secondary and higher education, as well as international education.