Kimberley Gomez

Associate Professor
PhD. 1994, University of Chicago, Educational Psychology

Kimberley Gomez is a learning sciences researcher whose research efforts are focused on helping children of color experience more equitable opportunities to learn in K-12 urban public schools. At the center of her research and design efforts is the support of literacy to achieve equity which is reflected in three interrelated lines of work: (1) access to rigorous, state of the art learning materials that meet students’ literacy and language needs and scaffold and transform their learning; (2) access to engaging and motivating learning environments; (3) interaction with teachers who have knowledge, training, and skills that can meet literacy and learning needs. Her currently funded research projects include a study of the relationship between reading achievement and science achievement in 9th -11th graders in urban high schools and an analysis of charter school instructional models, with a particular focus on reading instruction and technology integration plans, in gentrifying communities in Chicago. Her work has appeared in the Linguistics and Education, Phi Delta Kappan, the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Education and Urban Society, and The Journal of Negro Education. She is the co-editor of the recently published (July, 2008) volume "The Work of Language in Multicultural Classrooms: Talking Science, Writing Science" (Routledge/Erlbaum).