Faculty and Staff Profiles

Mark W. Conley
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Office Location:
Office Hours: Fridays, 3 - 5 PM and by appointment.
Profile

Research interests include teacher education policy and practice, adolescent literacy, assessment and human and artificial intelligence tutoring, all within interdisciplinary contexts. Commitment to urban teacher education and literacy in urban schools.



Work Experience

  • Professor, Instruction and Curriculum Leadership - The University of Memphis - 2008-present
  • Coordinator, Undergraduate and Graduate Programs in Literacy - Michigan State University - 2007-2008
  • Coordinator, PhD Program in Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy -   - 2004-2005
  • Woodworking Instructor, Acoustic Guitar Building, Teacher Preparation - Grand Rapids Woodcraft - 2005-2008
  • Flight Instructor, CFII - Lansing Community College - 2001-2004

Support

  • Professional Development for Grades 5 through 8 STEM teachers. - Tennessee Higher Education Commission - $57 thousand dollars - 2012 through 2013
  • Center for the Study of Adult Literacy - Institute for Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education - 12 million dollars - 2012 though 2018
  • STEM Grand Challenge – Adaptive, Generalizable Intelligent tutors for STEM and Naval Training and Education, - Office of Naval Research - 2.5 million dollars - 2012-2015
  • DeepTutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System Based on Deep Language and Discourse Processing and Advanced Tutoring Strategies. - Institute for Education Sciences - 1.5 million dollars - 2010 - 2013
  • The Memphis Literacy Corps. - The Memphis City Schools - 2.4 million - 2009 - present

Outreach

  • Hewlett Packard Foundation, Committee to Evaluate the PISA Assessments - Research panel - Spring 2015 - Hewlett Packard Foundation
  • Evaluating the ACT and Cambridge Curricula and Assessments using the Common Core State Standards - Leaders and researchers in English language arts and literacy - January 2013 through December 2013 - National Center on Education and the Economy
Service
  • National Council on Education and the Economy - Reading and Writing Committee - 2011-present
  • National Board for Professional Teaching Standards - Chair of the Committee, Revise the English/Language Arts Standards (C) - 2011-2012
  • Coordinating Panel for the Carnegie sponsored Adolescent Literacy Pre-Doctoral Fellowships. - Member of the Committee - 2007-2011
  • Member, Exemplary Teacher Preparation Program Awards (QUESTER) Committtee, International Reading Association - Chair and onsite visit coordinator - 2005-present
Books Published
  • Conley, M., & Seglem, R. (Eds.) (2015). Taking ownership over teacher performance assessment in language arts: Special edition of the Language Arts Journal, Language Arts, 93, 2, 81-159.
  • National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (2014). English language arts standards, third edition. Washington, DC. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. (co-chair and member of the standards panel).
  • National Center on Education and the Economy. (2013). What does it mean to be college and work ready? A report from the National Center of Education and the Economy, Washington, DC. (member of the English research panel).
  • Conley, M. (2012). Content Area Literacy: Learners in Context, (2nd edition). Boston: Pearson.
Books Reviewed
  • Conley, M. (2012). Review of Research in Urban Educational Settings: Lessons Learned and Implications for Future Practice. Edited by Kimberly A. Scott and Wanda J. Blanchett. Teachers College Record. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number 16891.
Journal Articles
  • Conley, M. (in press). Embracing teachers as a vital resource. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy.
  • Conley, M. (2017). Improving Adolescent Comprehension: Developing Comprehension Strategies in the Content Areas. (pp. 406-427). S. Israel, Handbook of Research on Reading Comprehension, 2nd Edition. New York: Guilford.
  • Conley, M. (2016). Collaborating across educational divide: Why it is important for literacy and what it takes. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 59, 5, 1-6.
  • Conley, M. & Garner, G. (2015). The edTPA and the (de)skilling of America’s teachers? Teachers College Record, Date Published: July 17, 2015. http://www.tcrecord.org ID Number: 18037, Date Accessed: 2/18/2016 10:11:24 AM.
  • Conley, M. & Kang, H. (2015). What beginning teachers’ narratives about video-based instruction tell us about learning to teach science and literacy. (pp. 21-40) In E. Ortlieb, Shanahan, L. & McVee, M. (Eds.), Video research in disciplinary literacies. Cambridge, MA: Emerald Group Publishing.
Presentations
  • Conley, M., & Greenberg, D. (2014).  A survey of adult literacy teachers’ instructional practices associated with various texts, tasks and social conditions. A paper presented at the annual conference of the Society for Text and Discourse, Chicago.
  • Conley, M., & Greenberg, D. (2014). Choices of adult literacy teachers’ instructional texts and tasks within different instructional and social conditions. A paper presented at the annual conference of the Literacy Research Association, Marco Island, FL.
  • Conley, M. (2012). Differentiating literacy instruction to meet the needs of special populations: including creative and gifted students and English Language Learners. A presentation at the annual meeting of the International Reading Association, Orlando, FL.