Dan Zalles

Educational Researcher

For 20 years, Dr. Zalles has done educational technology research, evaluation, assessment design, educational software development, and teacher professional development. He has training and experience carrying out qualitative and quantitative research and evaluation projects and studied implementation of change, organizational theory, policy analysis, anthropology, and cognitive psychology at Stanford. Though his primary content focus has been social studies, for which he served as a teacher and Stanford supervisor of pre-service teachers, Dr. Zalles has developed technology-based curricula and assessments in middle school reading, mathematics, and science as well.

Evaluation and assessment have been the primary foci of his projects at SRI and prior to SRI. At Stanford, he completed the Evaluation Training Program. His evaluation projects have involved comparison group designs, case studies, and student assessments. He has developed many evaluation instruments, including performance assessments, selected-response assessments, questionnaires, and classroom-observation protocols.

At SRI, he has had a key role in the development of the Online Evaluation Resource Library. His tasks have included developing an underlying database, authoring professional development modules on key topics such as methodological approaches and sampling, and reviewing new resources for the collection from existing NSF-funded projects.

In addition, Dr. Zalles has carried out a number of software development, research, and evaluation projects for the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Dairy Council of California, including developing performance assessments that measure students' skills in using technology to reason with information and communicate, evaluating student learning in online courses and in a program that promotes use of the Internet in the schools of developing nations, developing math problem-solving software, evaluating technology-based nutrition awareness programs for children and adults, and providing technical assistance to partner states and school districts on how to evaluate their educational technology programs.

Education 

Professional Experience 

Research Areas at CTL

Assessment
Evaluation

Current Projects at CTL

Past Projects at CTL

Publications