William H. Schmidt is a University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education at Michigan State University. He also is currently co-director of the Education Policy Center, co-director of the US China Center for Research and co-director of the NSF PROM/SE project and holds faculty appointments in the division of measurement and qualitative methods and the Department of Statistics. Previously he served as National Research Coordinator and Executive Director of the US National Center which oversaw participation of the United States in the IEA sponsored Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). His current writing and research concerns issues of academic content in K-12 schooling, assessment theory and the effects of curriculum on academic achievement. He is also concerned with educational policy related to mathematics, science and testing in general. He was awarded the Honorary Doctorate degree at Concordia University in 1997 and received the 1998 Willard Jacobson Lectureship from The New York Academy of Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Education. He has a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.