Edmund Wyatt Gordon was a professor of psychology and had a tremendous influence on contemporary thinking in psychology, education and social policy and the implications of his work for the schooling of lower status youth and children of colour in America.
Professor Gordon’s career spans his roles as a professional practitioner, minister, clinical and counselling psychologist, research scientist, author, editor, and professor. Gordon was recognized as a pre-eminent scholar of African American studies when he was awarded the 2011 Dr John Hope Franklin Award from Diverse Issues in Higher Education magazine at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Council on Education.
He cites as major influencers Herbert G Birch, W E B Du Bois, and Alain LeRoy Locke.
June 13, 1921
North Carolina, USA
Jamaican father
1948 – married Susan G Gordon MD
1956 – after working with mentor and friend WEB DuBois, Dr Gordon was commissioned by President Lyndon B Johnson to help design the Head Start Program, aimed at providing early childhood education and family services to underresourced families.
1968 – Gordon was elected member of the National Academy of Education
1990 – Archives have been established to catalogue Gordon’s publishing and community engagement at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture
July 2000 until August 2001 – he was Vice President of Academic Affairs and Interim Dean at Teachers College, Columbia University.
2000 – co-founded The CEJJES Institute in Pomona, New York in Rockland County, New York to serve the African Diaspora with his wife
2003 – Educational Testing Service endowed a chair in Dr Gordon’s honour
2005 – Columbia University named its campus in Harlem, NY the Edmund W Gordon Campus of Teachers College, Columbia University
June 28, 2010 – he was awarded the 2010 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Relating Research to Practice Award
2011 -he served as chairperson of the Gordon Commission with Educational Testing Service
2013 – Educational Testing Service Reports published
2014 – The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System approved the honorific naming of the newly renovated and expanded Geography Building as the Susan G and Edmund W Gordon & Charles W and Frances B White Building, now referred to as the Gordon-White Building
2017 – he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
2018 – Archives established to catalogue Gordon’s publishing and community engagement at the University of Texas at Austin.
2019 – Gordon hosted the Human Variance and Assessment for Learning: Implications for Diverse Learners of STEM national conference at Teachers College, Columbia University, convening scholars, policymakers, school principals, and students together to discuss selected models of measurement for the implementation of new ways of generating and utilising data from assessments
Born in a small, highly segregated tobacco town in North Carolina, Dr Edmund Gordon enjoyed a comfortable childhood with his father, a practising physician who had emigrated from Jamaica, his mother, a former elementary school teacher, and two siblings. While the town was segregated and African Americans weren’t allowed to shop alongside white Americans, the Gordon family was allowed to shop in a department store on Wednesday afternoons, because of the strong reputation of Gordon’s father.
Gordon’s scholarship has focused on the development of students who were African American, ethnic minorities, and of low socioeconomic status who triumphed over significant odds to become betterachievers. He is widely known for his research on diverse human characteristics and pedagogy. His research includes the advancement of the concepts of the Achievement Gap, Affirmative development of academic ability, and Supplementary Education, all of which focus on improving the quality of academic achievement in diverse learners. His publications consist of more than 200 articles and 18 books and monographs.
Dr Gordon also conducted research that would later be used to prove to the Supreme Court that school segregation had harmful effects on children.
Edmund Gordon was working at Stanford University with colleagues who were involved in John F Kennedy’s beginnings of social change. Soon after, Kennedy was assassinated and Lyndon Johnson became president. Gordon was given the job of evaluating the Head Start program. Gordon stated that getting this job had as much to do with his doctoral studies as it did affirmative action. He has stated that while he believes Head Start has been a success from a government standpoint, the programme could have been much more than it is today. His colleagues and he viewed the project as not only a child development project, but also a project to influence and improve the lives of families and communities. The latter part of Gordon’s dreams for Head Start has not come to be, but he still believes the overall program has been a success.
Gordon received his bachelor’s degree in Zoology and Social Ethics in Divinity from Howard University, a Master of Arts degree in Social Psychology from American University, and the Doctor of Education degree in child development and guidance from Teachers College, Columbia University. He was also awarded the Masters of Arts degree (honorary) from Yale University and the Doctor of Humane Letters degree (honorary) from Yeshiva University and Brown University.
From July 2000 until August 2001, he was Vice President of Academic Affairs and Interim Dean at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is the John M. Musser Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Yale University, the Richard March Hoe Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, and founding director of the Institute for Urban and Minority Education and the Institute for Research on African Diaspora in the Americas and Caribbean (IRADAC) at The City College of New York. In 2006, Dr Gordon was appointed Senior Scholar in Residence at SUNY Rockland Community College, an appointment that was renewed in 2010. In 2003, Educational Testing Service endowed a chair in Dr Gordon’s honour.
Gordon was elected member of the National Academy of Education in 1968. In 2005, Columbia University named its campus in Harlem, NY the Edmund W. Gordon Campus of Teachers College, Columbia University.
On 28 June 2010, he was awarded the 2010 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Relating Research to Practice Award.
He served as chairperson of the Gordon Commission with Educational Testing Service from 2011 through the publication of its reports in 2013.
On 15 December 2014, The Board of Regents of the University of Texas System approved the honorific naming of the newly renovated and expanded Geography Building as the Susan G and Edmund W Gordon & Charles W and Frances B White Building, now referred to as the Gordon-White Building.
In 2017, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
In 2019, Gordon hosted the Human Variance and Assessment for Learning: Implications for Diverse Learners of STEM” national conference at Teachers College, Columbia University, convening scholars, policymakers, school principals, and students together to discuss selected models of measurement for the implementation of new ways of generating and utilising data from assessments.
Archives have been established to catalogue Gordon’s publishing and community engagement at the Schomburg Centre for Research in Black Culture in 1990 and at the University of Texas at Austin in 2018.
Edmund Gordon was born in 1921 in the segregated town of Goldsboro, North Carolina. His father emigrated from Jamaica and began to practice medicine when he married Gordon’s mother, an elementary school teacher. While the town was heavily segregated and African Americans weren’t allowed to shop alongside white Americans, the Gordon family was allowed to shop in a department store on Wednesday afternoons, because of the strong reputation of Gordon’s father.
He has been married to Dr Susan Gitt Gordon, a paediatrician, for over 60 years. Together they have four children, nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. In 2000, they cofounded The CEJJES Institute in Pomona, New York in Rockland County, New York to serve the African Diaspora.
He turned 100 in 2021.
Links to wider Resources:
https://www.horizonsnational.org/blog/black-voices-in-education-dr-edmund-w-gordon/#:~:text=Gordon%20grew%20up%20in%20a,Teacher%27s%20College%20at%20Columbia%20University.
Celebrating A Centenarian: Dr. Edmund Gordon, SPA/MA ’50, Co-Architect, Federal Head Start Program | American University, Washington, D.C.
Credits
Edmund Gordon | Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (asu.edu)
Black Voices in Education: Dr. Edmund Gordon (horizonsnational.org)
Edmund Gordon at 100 thinks the key to school is at home – The Washington Post
Edmund W. Gordon – Wikipedia
