Steve Tozer, PhD, Professor Emeritus of Educational Policy Studies, UIC College of Education 

Prior to his retirement in 2018, Dr. Steve Tozer was Professor and University Scholar in Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and founding Director of the UIC Center for Urban Education Leadership--as well as founding Coordinator of the UIC Ed.D. Program in Urban Education Leadership.  While earning degrees from Dartmouth College, Loyola University, and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), Steve began his career as a Hull House kindergarten teacher and director of a community-based early childhood center in Uptown Chicago, later directing an alternative HS for Cook County Corrections. In higher education, he chaired the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at UIUC; the Department of Educational Policy Studies at UIC; the Governor’s Council on Educator Quality in Illinois; and a State Legislative Task Force that resulted in a new state school leadership certificate. His collaborations with colleagues from UIC and Chicago Public Schools were continuously funded for 18 years by the US Department of Education and numerous foundations. He is lead author of a textbook, School and Society, Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, 8^th Edition (McGraw-Hill, 2019), and lead editor of The Handbook of Research in Social Foundations of Education (Routledge, 2011).  His current work focuses on research-practice partnerships for continuous improvement in schools.