Linda Shear

Director of Commercial and International Strategy, SRI Education

Linda Shear is the Director of Commercial and International Strategy in SRI Education. Shear’s research and consulting work focuses on systemic educational change and powerful uses of ICT (information and communications technology) to support deeper learning for all students. In her 20 years at SRI she has directed numerous evaluation studies of educational technology implementations and school/system reform, both in the U.S. and internationally.

Shear currently directs Apple and ConnectED Research, a large-scale study of the adoption of 1:1 technology in over 100 of the most economically challenged schools and communities in the United States. She is also leading a rigorous multi-year evaluation of the 32-school pilot of CoolThink@JC, a new computational thinking curriculum for primary grade students in Hong Kong.

Shear’s international work has included multinational studies designed and coordinated by SRI. For example, in Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research, leading researchers in seven diverse countries collaborated to investigate the factors that promote innovative teaching within and across local contexts. This work and other projects have also leveraged analysis of the learning activities that teachers assign and the work that students do in response as a powerful tool for professional development. Additional areas of specialty include strategic planning and program evaluations that help clients envision and maximize the implementation effectiveness and learning outcomes of the programs they deliver.

Education

• M.A., education in math, science, and technology, University of California, Berkeley, 1998
• A.B., sociology, Princeton University, 1984

Experience

• Director of International Studies, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (1998–present)
• Researcher/Consultant, University of California, Berkeley, CA (1996-1998)
• Senior Manager and Curriculum Architect, Lotus Development Corporation, San Francisco, CA (1993–1996)
• Senior Manager, Price Waterhouse, San Francisco, CA (1986–1992)
• Programmer/Analyst, Combustion Engineering, Windsor, CT (1984–1986)

Current projects

• ConnectED Research (Leader)
• Evaluation of CoolThink@JC (Leader)
• OER Degree Initiative

Past projects

• Innovative Teaching and Learning (ITL) Research (Leader)
• 21st Century Learning Design (Leader)
• Evaluation of the Microsoft Innovative Schools Program (Leader)
• Next Generation Learning Challenge Grant Evaluation
• Study of Online Learning
• Wireless Internet Learning Devices (WILD) (Leader)
• College Success Foundation (CSF) evaluations (Leader) (ended 2009)
• Knowledge Management for Program Improvement: Evaluation of the San Diego County Office of Education’s Knowledge Management Systems (Leader) (ended 2007)
• Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT) (ended 2003)
• Educator’s Knowledge Network Evaluation (Leader) (ended 2007)
• Evaluation of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s National High School Program (Leader) (ended 2006)
• Evaluation of the GLOBE Program (ended 2006)