James Raths was the dean of the College of Education and Social Services at the University of Vermont and has recently retired from his post as professor in the School of Education at the University of Delaware where he also served as a department chair. He earned his BS degree at Yale College in mathematics in 1954 and a master’s in teaching and history from Yale University the following year. His PhD degree in education research, evaluation, and statistics was from New York University in 1960. While at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, he served as Executive Secretary for the Council for Teacher Education as well as associate dean for teacher education.

He has served as Executive Editor of the Journal of Education Research from 1975 to the 2005 and co-edited (with Frank Murray) the Review of Education Research. Raths has published widely, including co-editing a number of books and writing chapters for books on teacher preparation.

Raths received the Kiekhofer and Uhrig Memorial Teaching Awards as well as the University of Delaware Distinguished Faculty Award. He has also been recognized for his professional writing by the American Association of College of Teacher Education (AACTE) and the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE).

Raths has responsibility for the initial advisement to programs preparing an Inquiry Brief and has served as a TEAC auditor, and more recently was appointed director of the TEAC Accreditation Panel. In this role, Raths helped revise Panel procedures to keep them transparent and focused on TEAC principles and standards.