Deborah Schifter, EDC principal research scientist, is an expert in mathematics education and early algebra learning. She leads research, develops instructional resources, and designs professional development that helps teachers enhance mathematics instruction and ensure students’ mathematics proficiency.
Schifter is a widely published author. With Virginia Bastable and Susan Jo Russell, she produced Developing Mathematical Ideas, a professional development series, and Connecting Arithmetic to Algebra, a book that is the basis for an online course for Grade 1–6 teachers. She co-authored Reconstructing Mathematics Education and But Why Does It Work? She has also edited books, including a two-volume anthology of teachers’ writing titled What’s Happening in Math Class?
Prior to joining EDC, Schifter taught elementary-, secondary-, and college-level mathematics and was an applied mathematician at the Naval Research Laboratory. For five years, she directed the Summer Math for Teachers program at Mount Holyoke College.
Schifter holds a BA from Saint John’s College, Annapolis; an MA in Applied Mathematics from the University of Maryland; and an MS and PhD in Psychology from the University of Massachusetts.