Sheila W. Valencia is Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Washington, Seattle where she contributed to the teacher preparation, masters, and doctoral programs in literacy. She began her career as a teacher in New York City, then spent six years as Director of Reading in Adams Country School District, and finally 32 years as a faculty member at UW. Her research focuses on literacy assessment, policy, and teacher development, particularly how to create and use assessment to improve teaching and learning. Working on long-term collaborations with several states and school districts, she has conducted research and professional development projects on aligning both instruction and assessment with deeper, rigorous learning in literacy and social studies. Her work has appeared in numerous edited books and top-tier journals including Reading Research Quarterly, Educational Assessment, Journal of Teacher Education, Elementary School Journal, Journal of Literacy Research, and The Reading Teacher.
Valencia has served on national, state, and local assessment committees to improve assessment systems and policies including the Common Core Standards Advisory Panel on Literacy, National Assessment of Educational Progress subcommittees, and IRA/NCTE standards and assessment committees. She currently serves as a member of the Nationall Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Validity Studies Panel and the Technical Advisory Panel for Smarter Balanced Assessment. Dr. Valencia has been honored as a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Dina Feitelson Research Award from the International Literacy Association (ILA), the P. David Pearson Scholarly Influence Award, and outstanding teacher education article from American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE).
