Deborah J. Leong
Senior Research Fellow, NIEER, Metropolitan State College at Denver, Department of Psychology

Deborah J. Leong is a professor of psychology at Metropolitan State College of Denver. She has a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Her interests include the application of the Vygotskian approach to early childhood education and authentic assessment. She has coauthored (with Elena Bodrova) Tools of the Mind: the Vygotskian Approach to Early Childhood Education and a series of educational videos on Vygotsky. She is co-director of the Tools of the Mind Project, which was chosen as an exemplary educational innovation by the International Bureau of Education, UNESCO, United Nations. Her writing includes Assessing and guiding young children's growth and development (coauthored with Oralie McAfee) as well as several articles on dynamic assessment. She has also written about early childhood standards, A Framework for Early Literacy Instruction: Aligning Standards to Developmental Accomplishments and Student Behaviors--Pre-K through Kindergarten.