Dean Fleener has over 20 years of professional experience in K-12 and higher education, including teaching high school mathematics and computer science in North Carolina. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Indiana University, and two master’s degrees from the University of North Carolina. She received a PhD from UNC-Chapel Hill and is in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in mathematics education. Before coming to NC State, she was the Dean of the College of Education at Louisana State University.
Her teaching and research have been in the areas of philosophy, computer science, mathematics, mathematics education, gender issues in mathematics and engineering, and curriculum theory. She has numerous publications, including her recent books Curriculum Dynamics: Recreating Heart and Chaos, Complexity, Curriculum, and Culture: A Conversation (edited, with others). She has also participated in several millions of dollars worth of grants in the areas of mathematics education, technology integration, gender studies, teacher professional development, and high school students’ preparation and readiness for college and post-secondary experiences.
Ellen McIntyre is the Dean of the College of Education at UNC Charlotte and a co-PI on the ATOMS study. Ellen served as the founding Department Head of Elementary Education at NC State and drove the development of the program. Ellen’s other research areas focus on teacher education and literacy education, especially as those areas relate to underserved populations. Ellen has published 7 books and numerous research studies in journals such as Teaching and Teacher Education, Reading Research Quarterly, Research in the Teaching of English, and the Journal of Literacy Research. In her spare time, Ellen enjoys reading, watching films, and hiking.
Stephen R. Porter is Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Leadership, Policy and Human Development at North Carolina State University, where he also serves as coordinator for the graduate research methods sequence for the College of Education. He teaches courses in educational statistics, causal inference with observational data, and survey research methods.
He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Rochester, with a concentration in econometrics. Prior to his faculty positions at North Carolina State and Iowa State University, he spent nine years in higher education administration in the field of institutional research, working first at the University of Maryland, College Park, and most recently as Director of Institutional Research at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
His current research focuses on student success, with an emphasis on quasi-experimental methods, and survey methods, particularly the validity of college student survey questions. He has published in journals such as Economics of Education Review, Industrial and Labor Relations Review, Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Higher Education, Public Opinion Quarterly, Research in Higher Education, and Review of Higher Education. He presents regularly at national education research conferences.
Dr. Porter is currently an editorial board member for Research in Higher Education and Review of Higher Education. He is also Chair of the Education Systems and Broad Reform grant review panel of the Institute of Education Sciences.
Dr. Margareta Pop is an Assistant Professor of Educational Pyschology in the Department of Teacher Education and Learning Sciences. Her research focuses on pre-service teachers’ education: motivation for career choice, beliefs about teaching and conceptual understanding of learning and instruction teaching and teacher education: teacher education program effectiveness teacher development and education: professional development and expertise.
Dr. Maher is the Assistant Dean for Professional Education and coordinator of the Curriculum Development and Supervision program. He serves as the treasurer of the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators and is an active member of the Moral Development and Education SIG of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the American Association of Colleges and Teacher Educators (AACTE). He also serves on various state committees in North Carolina including the State Superintendent’s Ethics Advisory Panel and the North Carolina Teacher Effectiveness Workgroup.
Andrew McEachin is an associate policy researcher in the economics, statistics, and sociology department at the RAND Corporation. Prior to joining RAND, he was an assistant professor of education policy at North Carolina State University and an Institute of Education Sciences postdoctoral fellow at University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. The unifying goal of his research is to generate rigorous policy-relevant evidence to help educators and policymakers in their efforts to raise student achievement and narrow achievement gaps.
His research agenda focuses on using advanced quantitative methods to study the determinants of persistent achievement gaps, as well as evaluating the effect of popular responses by policymakers and educators to reduce these gaps. Examples of these include standards-based accountability, school choice initiatives, teacher labor markets, and curricular intensification. His work has been published in highly ranked peer-reviewed education and public policy journals, including American Educational Research Journal, Education Finance and Policy, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Educational Researcher, and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. He is also currently working on projects funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation, Spencer Foundation, and the Walton Family Foundation.
He received his Ph.D. in education policy and M.A. in economics from the University of Southern California and his B.A. in history from Cornell University.
Dr. Minogue’s research centers on systematically exploring the use of haptics (simulated touch) in the teaching of school science concepts. He is also involved in a research project that examines the role of graphics in science notebooks and studies that investigate the use of educational games in science education. Much of this work involves the iterative design and testing of innovative but theory-guided educational interventions, but Dr. Minogue also favors mixed-methods approaches.
Beth Adams, Graduate Research Assistant
Elizabeth Adams is a Graduate Research Assistant on the ATOMS Project. Elizabeth has a B.A. in Psychology and Early Childhood Education from the College of Wooster in Ohio. She taught fourth grade in WCPSS from 2007-2010, earned her M.A. in Educational Psychology, Measurement, and Evaluation at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and has continued her studies as a Ph.D. student in Educational Research and Policy Analysis here at NCSU. Her research interests include test alignment, instrument development, and program evaluation.
Former Team Members
Carrie Lee
Ashley Whitehead
Daniell DiFrancesca
Terri Frasca
