Carol Ann Tomlinson is William Clay Parrish, Jr. Professor Emeritus at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education where she served as Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundations, and Policy, and Co-Director of the University’s Institutes on Academic Diversity. Prior to joining the faculty at UVa, she was a public school teacher for 21 years. During that time, she taught students in high school, preschool, and middle school and also administered programs for struggling and advanced learners. She was Virginia’s Teacher of the Year in 1974.
Carol is author of over 300 books, book chapters, articles, and other educational materials including: How to Differentiate Instruction in Academically Diverse Classrooms (3rd Ed.), The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2nd Ed.), Fulfilling the Promise of the Differentiated Classroom, (with Jay McTighe) Differentiating Instruction and Understanding by Design, (with Kay Brimijoin and Lane Narvaez) The Differentiated School, (with Marcia Imbeau) Leading and Managing a Differentiated Classroom, (with David Sousa) Differentiation and the Brain: How Neuroscience Supports the Learner-Friendly Classroom (2nd Ed.), (with Tonya Moon) Assessment in a Differentiated Classroom: A Guide for Student Success, and (with Mike Murphy) Leading for Differentiation: Growing Teachers who Grow kids. Her books on differentiation are available in 14 languages.
Carol was named Outstanding Professor at Curry in 2004 and received an All-University Teaching Award in 2008. In 2019, she was ranked #8 in the Education Week Edu-Scholar Public Presence Rankings of 200 “University-based academics who are contributing most substantially to public debates about schools and schooling,” and as the #3 voice in Educational Psychology. She works throughout the United States and internationally with educators who seek to create classrooms that are more effective with academically diverse student populations.
Mindshifts toward Meaningful Inclusion
School leaders and teachers are keenly aware of the sweeping variety of learning needs students bring to classrooms daily. We also have ample evidence that sorting students according to their perceived needs is more harmful than helpful to many students in both the shorter and longer terms. Further, many schools have invested significantly in professional development to support inclusive classrooms. Still, practices in many classrooms bear scant resemblance to visions of places in which a broad range of students not only gather together but also learn well together. Movement toward meaningful differentiation will not likely occur as a result of modest or even moderate change initiatives. Rather, it will happen when leaders and teachers work together to fundamentally modify educators’ beliefs as well as support for acting on those beliefs. This keynote will address several foundational mindshifts that are essential in establishing and maintaining truly inclusive communities of learners.
