Dr. Edmund W. Gordon Battles to Eradicate Achievement Gap - Higher Education: Before most knew what an achievement gap was, Dr. Edmund W. Gordon was working to eliminate it. He is regarded as one of the foremost scholars on divergent learning styles and championed supplemental education long before it was popular. In fact, Gordon popularized the term. He was also an architect of the nation’s Head Start program in the 1960s. Today, however, at 91, Gordon is still beating the drum of education reform as loud as he did half a century ago with a historic commission to get to the bottom of assessment.
Every bit of Gordon’s nine decades is present when he talks to you. A careful man, he takes slow deliberate pauses between thoughts and drags his sentences to understanding. His hawk-like eyes dart about under his bushy gray eyebrows and wisps of gray hair on his balding head to make sure you’re paying attention, and in his presence, you cannot help but feel like you should be taking notes. His face exemplifies the nickname many of Gordon’s former pupils have given him, “The Professor.”
