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ILSTE Fellow is Regents Professor

Professor Steve Graham, ILSTE Professorial Fellow with the Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, has been honoured and named as Regents Professor with Arizona State University in February 2021.

The Regents Professorship is an elite designation, honouring the best and world-class scholars who have achieved distinguishment in a research discipline. According to the Arizona State University President Michael Crow, Regents Professors are exceptional scholars and the elite of the academic world. The title of Regents Professor is recognised by peers nationally in the USA and internationally. It is the most prestigious and highest faculty award granted to selected few at the Arizona State University.

Professor Steve Graham was awarded this prestigious title due to his distinguished contributions in writing and writing instruction research. More than 30 years, Graham has studied how writing develops, how to teach it effectively and how writing can be used to support reading and learning. In recent years he has been involved in the development and testing of digital tools for supporting writing and reading through a series of grants from the Institute of Educational Sciences and the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education. His research involves developing writers and students with special needs in both elementary and secondary schools, with much of it occurring in classrooms in urban schools.

As a Professorial Fellow at ILSTE, Graham has contributed as a chief investigator to two Australian Research Council discovery projects on assessment adjustment and higher order literacy learning. He has also completed an Education Horizon project, funded by the Queensland Department of Education, promoting reading engagement among disadvantaged students in Queensland schools.

Graham has served as an adviser to a variety of organizations, including UNESCO, National Institute of Health, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Zuckerberg Initiative, National Writing Project, Institute of Educational Sciences and the What Works Clearinghouse. He is also a former member of the National Research Conference committee on adolescent and adult literacy. Graham’s associations and awards are plentiful and a testimony to his research contributions. He is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the International Academy for Research in Learning Disabilities. In addition to the Reading Hall of Fame, he has received the following awards: Sylvia Scribner Award (American Educational Research Association), Kauffman-Hallahan Distinguished Research Award (International Council for Exceptional Children), the Career Award (International Council for Exceptional Children), and the Samuel A. Kirk Award (International Council for Exceptional Children). In 2020, he was awarded the highly prestigious Thorndike Award from the American Psychological Association.