Susan J. Paik

Susan J. Paik is a professor of education in the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, where she also served as co-director of the Urban Leadership Program. Her research interests include educational productivity, learning and achievement, talent and leadership development, urban and international studies, underserved students, family-school-community partnerships, research methods and evaluation. She has participated in education projects in Africa, Asia, Central America, Europe, and the United States. Within the fields of education and psychology, Paik has worked with diverse populations of students, teachers, school leaders, researchers, and other practitioners.

Early in her career, she was invited to present her research at Stanford University, where she was awarded and designated as a Young Scholar by the Koret K–12 Task Force. Throughout her career, Paik has participated as a keynote speaker, chair, discussant, presenter, and panelist in more than 150 speaking engagements, including workshops, conferences, and other professional venues. She has presented at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Oxford University in England, University of Cape Town in South Africa, University of Bologna in Italy, University of Oviedo in Spain, and at other meetings in Australia, France, Germany, Venezuela, and the United States.

She has been a fellow of the National Institute of Mental Health and the Center for Urban Educational Research and Development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where she also continued her post-doctoral work in Education and Psychology. She has received several awards, grants (e.g., AERA), and scholarships, including the Teaching Incentive Award, Chancellor’s Award, and Early Outreach Award for her dedication to urban youth. Her work also led to media venues, including a live televised interview on minority and immigrant education, a video interview on education and the importance of communities, and editorials in local and national syndicates.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Paik co-organized a national conference in Washington, D.C., in November of 2005 based on her co-edited book, Narrowing the Achievement Gap: Strategies for Educating Latino, Black, and Asian Students (Springer, 2007). Well received by researchers, practitioners, and policymakers, the book was released in its second printing in its second year. She has a number of other publications, including Educational Productivity in South Korea and the United States, a monograph published by the International Journal of Educational Research. She is also a co-author of a booklet, Effective Educational Practices, which has been translated and disseminated to almost 200 countries by IBE and UNESCO Publications.

Sponsored by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), she is the editor of Advancing Educational Productivity. She was also the co-editor of the Educational Practice Series at the International Academy of Education, published by the International Bureau of Education (IBE) and UNESCO. Paik is the series editor of Educational Productivity, published by Information Age Publishing. She is working on several projects that focus on early preparation, learning, and talent development of diverse populations.

Paik serves on the board of directors for the Academic Development Institute (ADI), which works with families, schools, communities, and state educational agencies across the United States. ADI has partnered with the U.S. Department of Education, Illinois State Board of Education, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), Illinois Parents.org, Temple University, WestEd, Westat, and American Institutes of Research. She also served a three-year term on the editorial board for the American Educational Research Journal–Social and Institutional Analysis, a prestigious publication of AERA. She served as an advisory board member for Partnerships for Educational Excellence & Research (PEER), a South African Schools Partnership Project and European Research Network About Parents in Education Scientific Committee.

As a researcher and evaluator, Paik has advised and conducted research in the United States and in Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Nepal, India, Korea, South Africa, Sri Lanka, and other countries. Her evaluation experience has involved the Center for Innovation and Improvement, a $20-million grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, and Room to Read, a $40-million international organization supported by Oprah Winfrey, as well as both the Republican and Democratic administrations. Other research projects and evaluations include Chicago Children’s Museum, a million-dollar exhibition on Race, Stereotyping, and Prejudice; LEAP, a children’s program for learning; El Hogar del Nino; Walgreens; Golden Apple for Teachers; and other programs.

Paik has taught research methods, design, and evaluation to doctoral students, teachers, and school leaders. She has written several articles on diverse methodological approaches in education and psychology, such as increasing internal and external validity of research and evaluation designs. Some of the topics include employing experimental and quasi-experimental designs, survey approaches and regression analyses on large-scale databases, and content analyses and computerized programs for qualitative approaches. Her publication, “Evidenced-based Reform: Experimental and Quasi-experimental Designs,” was the lead chapter in the Scientific Basis of Educational Productivity (Subotnik and Walberg, Information Age Publishing, 2006).