Senta Raizen

Senta A. Raizen has been involved in science education for four decades, starting with her position as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Program Officer dealing with curriculum improvement during the 1960s.

As Director of the National Center for Improving Science Education at WestEd, Raizen has led or participated in many projects aimed at science education reform for the 1990s and beyond. Heading a study sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, she edited The High Stakes of High School Science, a report calling for reform of curriculum, instruction, and assessment and other practices in secondary school. Prior to that, she was responsible for a series of reports dealing with science education reform at the middle and elementary school level. She has led a number of major evaluation efforts, including evaluation of several federally sponsored programs that provide preservice education and professional development for science and mathematics teachers.

Raizen has authored or edited a number of books and many articles in science and technology education. Recent books she has coauthored include: Comprehensive Teacher Induction: Systems for Early Career Learning; Enhancing Program Quality in Science and Mathematics; A Splintered Vision: An Investigation of U.S. Science and Mathematics Education for the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS); Examining the Examinations: A Comparison of Science and Mathematics Examinations for College-Bound Students in Seven Countries; Bold Ventures, a three-volume series of case studies of mathematics and science innovations in the United States; The Future of Science in Elementary Schools: Educating Prospective Teachers; and Technology Education in the Classroom: Understanding the Designed World.

She has served in an advisory capacity to several national and international education studies, including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) science assessments, the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), and the National Goals Panel reports. She has been a member of the International Steering Committee of TIMSS and of the Science Functional Expert Group for the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's international literacy assessment of 15 year olds (Programme for International Student Assessment). Most recently, she co-chaired the committee that developed a new Framework and Assessment Specification to guide the science assessment to be administered by NAEP in 2009 and beyond. She currently serves on the NAEP Standing Committee that oversees the NAEP science assessments.

Raizen is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a member of the American Educational Research Association.
She began her career as an industrial chemist and is certified as a chemistry high school teacher. She received college and advanced degrees in chemistry.