Karen Wixson is Professor of Education at the University of Michigan, and was Dean of the department from 1998-2005. Prior to receiving her doctorate in reading education, she worked both as a remedial reading and a learning disabilities teacher. She has published widely in the areas of literacy curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and is co-author of a popular text on the assessment and instruction of reading and writing problems. Dr. Wixson has been a long-time consultant to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading tests and currently serves on the Planning Committee for the development of the 2007 NAEP Reading Framework. She recently served as Co-Director and Principal Investigator for the U.S. Department of Education's Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement (CIERA). She is currently serving on the NRC Committee on Evaluation of Teacher Certification by the NBPTS; previously she served on the NRC Committee for Embedding Common Test Items in State and District Assessments. She has a Ph.D. in reading education from Syracuse University.