Curry School of Education

Education

• Ph.D., University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, 1986
• M.A., University of Connecticut, 1978
• B.S., University of Connecticut, 1977

Personal Statement

Robert C. Pianta is Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.  He also holds positions as the Novartis Professor of Education and the director of the Curry School’s Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), Professor of Psychology at the U.Va. College of Arts & Sciences, and Director and the National Center for Research in Early Childhood Education. 

Pianta’s research and policy interests focus on teacher-student interactions and relationships, and conceptualization, measurement and improvement of their contributions to students’ learning and development.

Among other research measures and instruments, Pianta is the creator of an observational assessment of teacher-student interactions the Classroom Assessment Scoring System or CLASS.  CLASS is being utilized by every Head Start program in the country, touching 50,000 teachers and over a half a million students.  It also has been extended into work with infants and toddlers and has versions for k-12 grades, all of which have been shown to capture features of teacher-student interactions that contribute to learning and development.

Pianta has developed a series of supports engineered to target and improve a teachers’ effectiveness in the classroom.  Called MyTeachingPartner or MTP, these supports includes a web-mediated approach to coaching, a video library, and a college course, all proven to increase the quality of teachers’ interactions with students.

Dean Pianta has authored or co-authored more than 200 articles and 45 chapters and has edited, authored, or co-authored 10 books. He has been a principal investigator on several major research and training grants totaling over $50 million.  He also served as Editor of the Journal of School Psychology.  A nationally recognized expert in both early childhood education and k-12 teaching and learning, Pianta regularly consults with Federal agencies, foundations and universities.

Dr. Pianta received a B.S. and a M.A. in Special Education from the University of Connecticut, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota, and began his career as a special education teacher.  He joined the Curry faculty in 1986.

Research Interests

Research Measures/Instruments

A former special education teacher, Bob’s research focuses on investigating the effects of schooling on children’s social and academic outcomes and on improving school and classroom experiences through teachers’ professional development. He has been involved in developing observational assessments of classrooms and observationally-based systems for professional development. Bob has been a principal investigator on several major research and training grants and is also Editor of the Journal of School Psychology. He is the author of more than four hundred journal articles, chapters, and books in the areas of early childhood development, transition to school, school readiness, and parent-child and teacher-child relationships, and he consults regularly with Federal agencies, Foundations, and universities.

Sample Introduction