Theodore Coladarci
Professor of Education, College of Education and Human Development
Interim Director, Institutional Studies

After teaching at the University of Montana for three years, Ted Coladarci came to the University of Maine in 1983.  His areas of expertise are educational psychology, research methodology, and measurement and assessment. Ted has taught large undergraduate classes as well as graduate classes and is presently serving as the Interim Director of Institutional Studies on campus.

Ted is known as a very prepared, articulate teacher, with a sense of humor. Students describe him as holding high expectations, having extraordinary knowledge, challenging and always prepared.  One undergraduate wrote; “Probably the coolest education teacher that I’ve had yet.

Ted is a national leader in at least three areas of research and scholarly activity.  In educational assessment and statistics, he is widely known and respected for his textbook, Fundamentals of Statistical Reasoning in Education, which just came out in a second edition.  In his writings on educational assessment, he combines an understanding of the technical issues in measurement with a clear sense of classroom learning and educational policy.  In the area of teacher efficacy, a nationally known researcher writes: “I have found the concept of teacher efficacy powerful in understanding schools. Ted’s work on scale development and validation has significantly improved upon earlier scale development by other nationally recognized leaders”.  And in rural education, a fellow rural education scholar states:  “Ted is among a handful of scholars who can legitimately be called leaders in the field of rural education due to his tireless work as editor of the Journal of Research in Rural Education and due to the quality of his own research and publication efforts.” In 2003, the National Rural Education Association acknowledged Ted’s work by making him the recipient of the Stanley A. Brzezinski Memorial Rural Education Research Award.

Ted’s service is extensive at all levels.  Besides serving on many College and University committees, he is regularly called upon to share his expertise across the University. Examples of his service at the state level include membership and chair of the Maine Comprehensive Assessment Technical Advisory Committee and serving as a Visiting Fellow in the Maine Department of Education during a recent sabbatical year.  He serves on editorial boards of several of the most prestigious education, and measurement and assessment journals and has shared his expertise at the national level with the U.S. Department of Education. 

During the past year, Ted took on the role of interim director of Institutional Studies  (recently designated to be the permanent director), and worked very closely with the Provost’s office.  In spite of being on campus together for years, Ted and I had not really worked together.  It has been absolutely wonderful to have his expertise – along with that of Phil Pratt – to help us devise the sorts of analyses that are currently needed.  Who knew that endless meetings with spreadsheets could be so much fun.

Ted, thanks from the College and the University for all your contributions over the last 25 years.