Carol D. Lee has developed a framework for the design and enactment of curriculum that draws on the forms of prior knowledge that traditionally underserved students bring to classrooms. She is the author of Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African American Discourse Genre. She is co-editor, with Peter Smagorinsky, of Neo-Vygotskian Perspectives on Literacy Research. Lee recently completed a research project in a Chicago inner city high school that involves restructuring the English Language Arts curriculum in ways that build on social and cultural strengths that students bring from their home and community experiences. Lee is active in the school reform movement in Chicago Public Schools and has taught in both public and private schools before assuming a university career. She is a founder and former director of an African-centered independent school, Chicago's New Concept School, that has been in operation for 28 years.
