Gordon Ambach, an engaging and probing technocrat who, while in charge of education in New York state and as the leader of the Council of Chief State School Officers, helped usher in the nation's standards and accountability movement, has died at 83.
Former first lady Barbara Bush, an advocate for early and adult literacy during her time in the White House and afterward, died last week at the age of 92.
William F. "Bill" Goodling, a former teacher, principal, and superintendent who became one of the most influential members of Congress on education policy during his 13 terms in the House of Representatives, died Sept. 17 at his York, Pa., home.
Mitchell Chester, the hard-charging Massachusetts education commissioner who put in place some of the country’s most ambitious school improvement efforts and led his state through battles over common standards and a raucous testing opt-out movement, died June 26. He was 65.
William L. Sanders, the statistician and researcher who developed the controversial value-added system for evaluating teachers based on student growth, died March 16. He was 74.
Phyllis Schlafly, an influential conservative activist, author, and lawyer, died Sept. 5 at age 92. Anna Dewdney, the author and illustrator of the popular Llama Llama children's books, died Sept. 3. She was 50.
Seymour Papert, an education technology and artificial-intelligence research pioneer whose theories augured both today's digital learning and maker-education movements, died July 31. He was 88.
Samuel C. Stringfield, a nationally known expert on school improvement and a former member of the Baltimore City school board, died last month at the age of 67.
Jerome Seymour Bruner, one of the primary drivers of the "cognitive revolution" in psychology in the 1960s and an active scholar, died June 5. He was 100.
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