Dr. Scott Baker is Associate Professor of Education at Wake Forest University where he teaches courses on education policy and social justice. His research focuses on the history of African American education, school desegregation, and the origins of test based accountability. Professor Baker’s publications have appeared in the History of Education Quarterly, Education Policy Analysis Archives, the American Journal of Education, and the Teachers College Record. He has served on the editorial board of the History of Education Quarterly, and has reviewed books for the American Historical Review, the Journal of American History, and the Journal of Southern History. He is currently completing a history of African American education in North Carolina from the Supreme Court’s Brown decision in 1954 through implementation of No Child Left Behind in 2004. This research examines how and why test based accountability eclipsed the expansion of educational opportunity as a way of promoting racial equality in education.
- Associate Professor of Education, Department of Education
- Ph.D., Columbia University, 1993
- M.A., Tufts University, 1985
- B.A., The Evergreen State College, 1979
- Faculty Member, Institute for Urban Education, Barnard College
- Instructor, Smith College
- Instructor, Northeastern University
- University Supervisor, Columbia University
- History Teacher, School-Within-A School Brookline High School
- Teacher, Upward Bound Program
- Book Project, From Brown to No Child Left Behind: African American Education in North Carolina and the Nation, 1954-2004. In progress.
- Book Chapter, “African American Education in the Age of Accountability.” In Dionne Dans, Michelle Purdy, and Christopher Span, eds. Using The Past as Prologue: Contemporary Perspectives on African American Educational History. (Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishers, 2015).
- Article, Scott Baker, Brittany Vasquez, and Anthony Meyers, “Desegregation, Accountability, and Equality, 1971-2002.” Educational Policy Analysis Archives, 22 (2014).
- Article, “Desegregation, Minimum Competency Testing, and the Origins of Accountability: North Carolina and the Nation.” History of Education Quarterly, 55 (February 2015): 33-57.
- Book Review, Sarah Caroline Thuesen, Greater Than Equal: African American Struggles for Schools and Citizenship, 1919-1965. Journal of American History, 101 (June 2014): 310-311.
- Chair and Discussant, “Youth Activism After Brown,” American Educational Research Association, April 29, 2017.
- Editorial consultant, South Carolina Digital Archive, First Children of School Desegregation, 2015.
- Paper, “School Desegregation, Great Society Programs, and African American Educational Advancement.” Presented at the History of Education Society Meeting, St. Louis, MO, November 6, 2015.
- Chair and Discussant, Contested Spaces: Histories of School Desegregation. American Educational Research Association, Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, April 5, 2014.
- Paper, “The Origins, Evolution, and Effects of Test Based Accountability in the United States.” Presented at the Comparative Accountability Workshop, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, June 22, 2013.