PATCHOGUE, NY – AUGUST 7, 2006 – St. Joseph’s College is pleased to announce the new hire of Dr. Ian Beckford as Director of Institutional Research and Assessment. With over fifteen years of experience in evaluation research, Dr. Beckford joins the College after having worked in the Education and Child Development division of Abt Associates, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, where he conducted quantitative and qualitative research dealing with urban school reform, distance learning, graduate school training and child development. Subsequently, he was Senior Evaluation Officer with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and Evaluation Officer with the Wallace Reader’s Digest Funds in New York City.

Much of Dr. Beckford’s work has been of national, longitudinal design, making the utilization of sophisticated quantitative and qualitative research methodologies essential, and his studies have included creating cross-site evaluation designs, with the resulting data analyzed through multivariate inferential procedures. His past responsibilities have put him in charge of supervising evaluations – worth over fifteen million dollars – of graduate school counselor training programs, teacher professional development programs and after school programs. He is currently a member of the American Educational Research Association, the National Black Child Development Institute and the American Evaluation Association.

Dr. Beckford has also worked as an adjunct professor at various colleges, including the University of Massachusetts at Boston Department of Counseling and School Psychology, Brooklyn College School of Education and the New School University Department of Urban Policy and Planning. He earned his B.A. degree in Psychology from Hamilton College, New York and his M.A. degree in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Western Kentucky University as well as a second M.A. degree in Industrial Labor Relations from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. He went on to acquire his Ed.D. in Policy, Planning and Evaluation from the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

About St. Joseph's College

St. Joseph’s College has been dedicated to providing a diverse population of students in the New York metropolitan area with an affordable education rooted in the liberal arts tradition since 1916. Independent and coeducational, the College provides a strong academic and value-oriented education at the undergraduate and graduate levels, aiming to prepare each student for a life characterized by integrity, intellectual and spiritual values, social responsibility, and service. With campuses located in the Clinton Hill area of Brooklyn and in Patchogue, Long Island, the College offers degrees in over 22 majors, special course offerings and certificates, affiliated and pre-professional programs through its School of Arts and Sciences and its School of Professional and Graduate Studies.