Title: President
Company: Educational Research in Action LLC
Location: Underhill, Vermont, United States
Karin K. Hess, EdD, president at Educational Research in Action LLC, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Educators for dedication, achievements, and leadership in academia.
With over five decades of experience, Dr. Hess has built a successful career in education, specializing in cognitive rigor, learning progression, and assessment consulting. She has served as the president of Educational Research in Action LLC since 2015 and has been an educator since 1972. For nearly 15 years at the Center for Assessment, she distinguished herself as an expert in content, assessment design, and alignment across multiple content areas, including work with the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and alternate assessments for students with significant cognitive disabilities. She also contributed to Maine’s early development of graduation exhibition requirements, led New Hampshire’s model academic competencies initiative, and provided guidance in many states for performance assessments in competency-based systems. She collaborates with testing companies, school districts, and state departments of education to design rigorous, high-quality assessments, creating a global reach. Her earlier experience includes serving as a senior associate at the National Center for Assessment from 2002 to 2015 and as state director of gifted education and professional development specialist at the New Jersey Department of Education from 1988 to 1992.
Dr. Hess has contributed as a co-author of “Elevating Competency-Based Learning in a PLC Work: Actionable Assessment, Defensible Evidence, Equitable Grading” in 2024 and authored “Rigor by Design, Not Chance: Deeper Thinking Through Actionable Instruction and Assessment” in 2023. She also authored the second edition of “Fundamentals of Literacy Instruction and Assessment, Pre-K–6” in 2020, co-authored “Deeper Competency-Based Learning” in 2020, co-authored “Benchmark Education’s Ready to Advance Curriculum for Pre-K” in 2019, and authored “A Local Assessment Toolkit to Promote Deeper Learning: Transforming Research into Practice” in 2018. She is a member of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Michigan Assessment Consortium, Aurora Institute, International Reading Association, and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. She earned a Bachelor of Education with a minor in mathematics from Stratford University, a Master of Education from the College of New Rochelle, principal certification from the University of Vermont, and a Doctor of Education in educational leadership and policy studies from the University of Vermont in 2000. She is also a certified master gardener in the state of Vermont.
Reflecting on her path, Dr. Hess has been celebrated for creating the Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix, a groundbreaking tool that integrates qualitative evidence with comprehensive knowledge assessment. This invaluable resource has been adopted in more than 120 countries and translated into multiple languages, making it essential for evaluating educational content. She believes she has a unique ability to combine educational research with applied practice, setting her apart from others in her field. Her specialty is promoting deeper learning through neuroscience, helping educators tailor their methods based on how the brain functions. She attributes her success to her unwavering commitment to championing child-centered learning and ensuring every child has the opportunity to learn. In the coming years, she is committed to supporting schools, new teachers, and administrators, and is excited about the upcoming release of her book, with another manuscript scheduled for publication in the future.
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