Ruth Chung Wei, Director of Research & Innovation

Ruth joined ELP in 2018 as Director of Research and Innovation. However, she has long had a close relationship with the Envision Schools, having worked closely with its co-founder Bob Lenz and founding teachers to design and pilot test the prototype of the College Success Portfolio System. She has also conducted multiple studies on the role of performance assessment and portfolio defense in supporting deeper learning and their impact on teachers’ instructional practices and long-term success for Envision graduates.

Her current role at ELP is to deepen the evidence base on the characteristics of High Quality Performance Assessment systems and their impacts on student success, while also developing innovative performance-based assessment tools and protocols. Prior to joining ELP, she worked for 15 years at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, & Equity, where she served as Director of Assessment Research and Development. A research project that she is particularly proud of leading is the Measures of Social-Emotional Learning Project, which explored the validity of classroom-embedded evidence about students’ social-emotional competencies. She is passionate about the importance of creating classroom learning environments and school cultures that center student agency, and create the conditions for whole-child development, including personal and cultural identity, inter-personal and intra-personal practices, and physical/emotional well being. Ruth spent six years teaching history in New York City prior to her studies at the Stanford Graduate School of Education.

Learn more about Ruth in her I am ELP blog post. Connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter.