Carol Lee

Research Areas:
Dr. Lee’s research focuses primarily on the cultural contexts affecting learning broadly and literacy specifically; teacher preparation and development; classroom discourse and urban education. Lee has recently completed a research project in a Chicago inner city high school that involves restructuring the English Language Arts curriculum, including assessment, in ways that build on social and cultural strengths that students bring from their home and community experiences. Dr. Lee is active in the school reform movement in Chicago Public Schools and has taught in both public and private schools before assuming a university career.

Activities & Honors:
Dr. Lee is the founder and former director of the New Concept School, a 28-year old African centered independent school in Chicago. She also founded the African-centered Betty Shabazz International Charter School. Dr. Lee is also the past president of the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy and the chair of the standing committee on research of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Selected Publications:
• Lee, C.D. (2004). African American Students and Literacy. In D. Alvermann & D. Strickland (Eds.) Bridging the Gap: Improving Literacy Learning for Pre-Adolescent and Adolescent Learners Grades 4-12. NY:Teachers College Press.
• Lee, C.D. (2004). Double Voiced Discourse: African American Vernacular English as Resource in Cultural Modeling classrooms. In Arnetha Ball and Sarah W. Freedman (Editors) New Literacies for New Times: Bakhtinian Perspectives on Language, Literacy, and Learning for the 21st Century. NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Lee, C.D. (1993). Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African American Discourse Genre. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English.
• Lee, C.D. (2005). Culture and Language: Bi-dialectical Issues in Literacy. In P.Anders & J. Flood (Eds.) The Literacy Development of Students in Urban Schools. International Reading Association. Newark, DE.
• Lee, C.D. (2005). Taking Culture Into Account: Intervention Research Based on Current Views of Cognition & Learning. In J. King (Ed.). Black Education: A Transformative Research and Action Agenda for the New Century Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (joint publication with the American Educational Research Association).
• Lee, C.D. (2005). The State of Knowledge about the Education of African Americans. In J. King (Ed.). Black Education: : A Transformative Research and Action Agenda for the New Century Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum (joint publication with the American Educational Research Association).
• Lee, C.D. & Smagorinsky, P. [Editors](2000). Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research. NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Lee, C.D. Signifying in the Zone of Proximal Development. (2000). In Carol D. Lee and Peter Smagorinsky (Editors). Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research. NY: Cambridge University Press.
• Lee, C.D. (1998). Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Performance-Based Assessment. Journal of Negro Education, 67(3), 268-279.
• Lee, C.D. (1995). A Culturally Based Cognitive Apprenticeship: Teaching African American High School Students Skills in Literary Interpretation. Reading Research Quarterly, 30(4), 608-631.