Philip Morse, Director
As the administrator of research and assessment for the Orange Unified School District, Philip Morse knew all of the principals and many teachers in the 33,000-pupil district. He visited all 33 schools, conducting evaluations and giving presentations on how to understand assessment data.
When he became coordinator of the planning and assessment division of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Morse realized he couldn’t continue with the same approach. With 700,000 students in 750 schools, even if he had visited a school a day, he could never cover them all.
Despite the difference in scale, Morse’s successful philosophy did not change. His goal is to help those on the front lines—
administrators and principals—become experts in evaluation and assessment. “I believe district leaders should be a reservoir of knowledge for their schools and their communities,” Morse says.
In LAUSD, Morse was responsible for quality control of all district testing and demographic files. He won praise from an Educational Testing Service official for eliminating inaccurate data that could have an adverse impact on measuring school progress. He also designed and implemented the program for inclusion of charter schools and nonpublic schools in the testing process.
Morse, who is fluent in Spanish, spent a quarter-century teaching in districts with large numbers of English learners. This experience, coupled with his expertise in psychometrics and data management, has brought him to national attention. In 2009, he was tapped to serve on the National Assessment Governing Board Panel, setting standards for the testing of English learners.
Morse organized the first state conference of the California Educational Research Association and, in 2005, served as president of the organization. He currently serves as president of the National Association of Test Directors. He also teaches at Chapman University, where he was named outstanding part-time professor in the School of Education.
