Penny Bishop
Dean
Dr. Penny A. Bishop is dean of Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development and professor of teaching and learning. A scholar of early adolescence and middle grades education, Dr. Bishop joined BU in 2024 after a competitive national search for the college’s new leader.
Dr. Bishop comes to BU most recently from the University of Maine, where she served as dean of College of Education and Human Development. She began her career in higher education as a faculty member at the University of Vermont in 1998, where she served as associate dean of their College of Education and Social Services from 2014–2020 and founding director of the Tarrant Institute for Innovative Education from 2009–2017. She chaired the American Educational Research Association’s Middle Grades Education Research Special Interest Group and the Association for Middle Level Education’s Research Advisory Board, and she is founding coeditor of Middle Grades Review.
A former middle school teacher, Dr. Bishop has published seven books on education reform, along with dozens of widely cited book chapters and articles in top peer-reviewed journals. Her research, which focuses on providing responsive learning environments for young adolescents, has garnered more than $13 million in external support from public and foundation sources, and she has received several major honors for her work, including the John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Achievement in Middle Level Education from the Association for Middle Level Education and the James P. Garvin Distinguished Service Award from the New England League of Middle Schools. Her global engagement work includes serving as a Sir Ian Axford Fellow at New Zealand’s Ministry of Education and the establishment of two long-standing international programs for preservice and practicing educators and leaders.
Recent News
- BU Wheelock Climbs in US News & World Report Ratings
- Empowering Students to Plan for Their Futures
- Partnership in Bahrain Expands Impact
- How Strong School Leaders Drive Student Success
- Empowering Learning Outside the Classroom
- How AI Will Change Education
- New Year, New Potential
- Dean’s Letter
- Meet Penny Bishop
- BU Wheelock Welcomes New Faculty for 2024
In the Media
Education
EdD, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, University of Vermont
MEd, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Vermont
BA, English, Norwich University
Selected Publications
Selected Books
Bishop, P. A., & Harrison, L. M. (2021). The successful middle school: This we believe. Association for Middle Level Education.
Bishop, P. A., Downes, J. M., & Farber, K. (2019). Personalized learning in the middle grades. Harvard Education Press.
Selected Articles
Gunawardena, M., Bishop, P., & Aviruppola, K. (2024). Personalized learning: The simple, the complicated, the complex and the chaotic. Teaching and Teacher Education, 139. 104429. 10.1016/j.tate.2023.104429.
Bishop, P. (2023). Middle schoolers’ perspectives on peers’ social emotional competence. Research in Middle Level Education Online 49(7), 1-14. 10.1080/19404476.2023.2236347