Steve Schneider

Overview

Steve A. Schneider has over 30 years of experience in STEM education. Starting his career as a high school teacher, he developed outstanding professional learning facilitator skills. Early in his career at WestEd, Schneider provided hundreds of teachers with professional support through these learning opportunities. He is the founder of WestEd’s STEM program, currently consisting of the content areas of science and engineering, mathematics, and learning and technology. Schneider has been nationally recognized as an exemplary researcher, serving as Principal Investigator for the National What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) reviewing research submissions in K–12 science. He has led over a dozen large randomized control studies of STEM and literacy interventions. He has also worked with over 200 edtech startup companies as their research partner, providing formative usability, feasibility, and implementation studies to improve the quality of their interventions. Currently, Schneider serves as Senior Research Advisor to large STEM research projects and mentors a number of staff members on building partnerships and collaborations with for-profit and not-for-profit companies.   

Schneider is currently Senior Advisor on six Education Innovation Research (EIR) grants and a few Small Business Innovation grants. These grants, which will be implemented in a number of states across the United States, will help document the impact and effectiveness of state-of-the-art educational technology interventions in mathematics, computer science, and science education. These studies are all designed to meet the WWC requirements to research rigor and will therefore be submitted to the WWC for approval at the end of the study. 

Prior to coming to WestEd, Schneider spent 11 years as a high school science teacher and was the chairperson of that science department. He was identified by the State of California as an exemplary science teacher. After leaving the high school classroom, Schneider taught and supervised future teachers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. After teaching college, Schneider earned his PhD at Stanford University. While at Stanford, he founded Woodside Research Consortium (WRC), serving a number of corporate and school-based clients. WRC conducted research and evaluation of STEM education programs, including Hewlett-Packard’s National Elementary Hands-On science program, and worked for eight San Francisco Bay Area school districts as their research evaluator on a large 5-year National Science Foundation grant to improve elementary grade science instruction. This work led Schneider to found the STEM work at WestEd.  

Education

• PhD in design and evaluation of educational programs, Stanford University 
• California Life Teaching Credential, biological sciences, Science Intern Teaching Program, California State University  
• BA in biological science, University of California 

Select Publications

Davenport, J. L., Kao, Y. S., Matlen, B., & Schneider, S. A. (2019). Cognition research in practice: Engineering and evaluating a middle school math curriculum. The Journal of Experimental Education, 88(4), 516–535. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220973.2019.1619067 

Graves, M. F., Schneider, S., & Ringstaff, C. (2017). Empowering students with word-learning strategies: Teach a child to fish. The Reading Teacher, 71(5), 533–543. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1644 

Schneider, S. A., Lepori, K. L., et al. (2016). Exploring models of online professional development. In C. Dede, A. Eisenkraft, K. Frumin, & A. Hartley (Eds.), Teacher learning in the digital age: Online professional development in STEM education (pp. 215–234). Harvard Education Press.  

Davenport, J. L., Kao, Y. S., & Schneider, S. A. (2013). Integrating cognitive science principles to redesign a middle school math curriculum. In M. Knauff, M. Pauen, N. Sebanz, & I. Wachsmuth (Eds.), Proceedings of the 35th Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society. Cognitive Science Society.  

Greenleaf, C., Litman, C., Rosen, R., Boscardin, C., Herman, J., & Schneider, S. A., et al. (2011). Integrating literacy and science in biology: Teaching and learning impacts of reading apprenticeship professional development. American Educational Research Journal, 48(3), 647–717.  

National Research Council. (2011). Successful K–12 STEM education: Identifying effective approaches in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Committee on Highly Successful Science Programs for K-12 Science Education, Board on Science Education and Board on Testing and Assessment, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. The National Academies Press.  

Schneider, S., Quellmalz, E., Sneider, C., Kaser, J., Timms, M., Loveland, M., et al. for the National Assessment Governing Board. (2010). Technology and engineering literacy framework for the 2014 National Assessment of Educational Progress: Pre-publication edition. https://www.nagb.gov/content/dam/nagb/en/documents/publications/frameworks/technology/2014-technology-specification-prepublication.pdf  

Schneider, S., Raizen, S., Shavelson, R., Fu, A., Kaser, J., Timms, M., et al. for the National Assessment Governing Board. (2008). Science framework for the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. https://www.nagb.gov/content/dam/nagb/en/documents/publications/frameworks/science/2009-science-framework.pdf  

Schneider, S. A., Daehler, K., Hershbell, K., Solano-Flores, G., & Shaw, J. (2008). Science teacher assessment development. In L. Ingvarson (Ed.), Assessing teachers for professional certification: The first ten years of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. JAL Press.  

Britton, E., & Schneider, S. A. (2007). Large-scale science assessment. In S. K. Abell & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education. Lawrence Erlbaum.  

Schneider, S. A., Daehler, K. R., Hershbell, K., McCarthy, J., Shaw, J., & Solano-Flores, G. (1998). Adolescence and young adulthood science portfolio. National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.  

Solano-Flores, G., Raymond, B., & Schneider, S. A. (1997). Computer assisted portfolio scoring. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.  

Arbuckle, S. H., & Schneider, S. A. (1993). Science education for all. Paper published and presented at the Third International Science Education Conference, Jerusalem, Israel.  

Porter, A., Kirst, M., Schneider, S. A., et al. (1993). Reform up close: What is being taught in science and math classrooms. Technical report for the National Science Foundation.  

Schneider, S. A. (1992). The intended curriculum: The teacher’s and district’s perspective of what gets taught. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA.  

Schneider, S. A. (1989). Enactive and vicarious learning in pre-service science teachers: In the context of macroteaching. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, CA. 

Honors, Awards, and Affiliations

Expert testimony to the U.S. Congress on the importance of the federal role in STEM education research and development (April 2013) 

Four-time recipient of WestEd’s Paul Hood Award for recognition in the field 

Review panel member for the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation. and National Institute for Health 

National Academy of Science panel member  

Recent Media Appearances

• WestEd to Study Efficacy of ‘My Math Academy’ Digital Tool, Government Technology, September 1, 2022.