Penny Bishop

Penny Bishop is Professor and Dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Maine. Her doctoral degree is in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Vermont. Her research, which focuses on the provision of responsive learning environments for young adolescents, has received more than $13 million in external funding. Her numerous awards include the John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Achievement in Middle Level Education from the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) and the James P. Garvin Distinguished Service Award from the New England League of Middle Schools. She has co-authored seven books on education reform, the most recent being “The Successful Middle School: This We Believe” (AMLE) and “Personalized Learning in the Middle Grades” (Harvard Education Press). Dr. Bishop is Executive Advisor to the Middle Grades Education Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association; co-director of the Middle Grades Collaborative; former chair of the Research Advisory Board of the Association for Middle Level Education; and co-editor of the Middle Grades Review. Penny previously served as policy advisor on fellowship to the New Zealand Ministry of Education, providing input and research on effective schooling policies for students in the middle years in that country. She served as founding director of the University of Vermont’s Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education from 2009–17. Her research has appeared in journals such as Elementary School Journal, Middle School Journal, Teacher Education and Practice, Middle Grades Research Journal, and Research in Middle Level Education.