EAST LANSING, Mich. – William H. Schmidt, a University Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Education.

Schmidt, an MSU professor of educational psychology and measurement and quantitative methods, is one of only three scholars in the world chosen for membership in recognition of their pioneering efforts in educational research and policy development.

"Bill’s appointment to this prestigious organization brings honor and credit both to him and to Michigan State," said university President Lou Anna K. Simon. "His outstanding scholarship and ongoing efforts—particularly to improve the quality of math and science teaching, both nationally and internationally—are tremendous examples of what MSU’s land-grant tradition and ‘world-grant’ aspirations are all about."

Schmidt is co-director of the Education Policy Center at MSU, the U.S.-China Center for Educational Excellence, and co-principal investigator of the $35 million project known as Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education or PROM/SE.

Through much of the 1990s, Schmidt also served as project coordinator and executive director of the U.S. National Research Center for the influential Third International Mathematics and Science Study, which involved dozens of countries and chronicled the lagging achievement of American K-12 students in mathematics and science.

In announcing his membership, the academy described his research as having “enormous impact on national and international policy and research primarily through his work on international comparison of educational achievement.”

Schmidt received his doctorate from the University of Chicago and came to MSU in 1969. He was appointed a University Distinguished Professor by the MSU Board of Trustees in 1998.

The National Academy of Education is an honorary society that currently has 129 members and eight international associates. Total membership is limited to 150 scholars. Through the years its members have included such luminaries as anthropologist Margaret Mead and psychologist Jean Piaget. The academy was founded in 1965 to advance the highest quality education research and its use in policy formation and practice.

For more information about the National Academy of Education, visit: http://www.naeducation.org/; for more information about PROM/SE, visit http://www.promse.msu.edu/.

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