About Dr. Gordon

About Dr. Edmund Gordon


Edmund Gordon is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology, Emeritus at Yale University, Richard March Hoe Professor, Emeritus of Psychology and Education and Founding Director of the Institute of Urban and Minority Education (IUME) at Teachers College, Columbia University. From July 2000 until August 2001 Gordon was Vice President of Academic Affairs and Interim Dean at Teachers College, Columbia University. Professor Gordon’s distinguished career spans professional practice, scholarly life as a minister, clinical and counseling psychologist, research scientist, author, editor, and professor. He held appointments at several of the nation’s leading universities including Howard, Yeshiva, Columbia, City University of New York, Yale, and the Educational Testing Service. He has served as visiting professor at City College of New York and Harvard. Currently, Professor Gordon is the Senior Scholar and Advisor to the President of the College Board where he developed and co-chaired the Taskforce on Minority High Achievement. Author and/or editor of over 15 books and over 175 articles Gordon is a psychologist and expert in child development who has worked throughout his career on the issues and challenges of underprivileged and minority students in American education. As a clinician and researcher, he explored divergent learning styles and advocated for supplemental education long before most scholars had recognized the existence and importance of those ideas. He was Chief of the Head Start Research Office under President Lyndon Johnson and from 2011 to 2013 he organized and mentored the (ETS) Gordon Commission, bringing together scholars to research and report on the Future of Assessment for Education. His most recent publication, Human Variance and Assessment for Learning, co-edited with Eleanor Armour-Thomas, Cynthia McCallister, and A. Wade Boykin (October 2019, Third World Press), is a further development of ideas generated from the Gordon Commission.

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