Jim Short is a program director within the Corporation’s Education program, where he manages the Leadership and Teaching to Advance Learning portfolio. Short oversees grantmaking aimed at preparing and supporting teachers and school and system leaders for learning environments that enable students to develop the knowledge, skills, and dispositions they need for future success.
An educator with nearly 30 years of experience, Short is an expert in teacher education and professional development. He came to the Corporation from the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, where he was the founding director of the Gottesman Center for Science Teaching and Learning, a role he began in 2007. Short led the museum’s efforts to strengthen science education programs at local and national museums, nonprofit organizations, schools, and school districts, including the New York City Department of Education.
At the Gottesman Center, Short’s major initiatives included overseeing the design and implementation of the Urban Advantage program in New York City, a museum and school partnership underway in nearly half the city’s middle schools that supports long-term science investigations and project-based learning by students. He was also on the faculty of the museum's Master of Arts in teaching, a first-of-its kind urban teacher residency program for developing certified earth science teachers for work in struggling secondary schools.
Previously, Short spent 10 years teaching in K–12 schools. While working in the Denver public school system, he led the redesign of the K–12 science program, and at the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study in Colorado, he directed a national science curriculum and implementation center. His professional development experience includes working with school systems and science teachers from several urban school districts nationwide. In recent years, Short focused on helping teachers translate the Next Generation Science Standards into classroom instruction and assessments, and incorporating nonfiction reading and writing strategies aligned with Common Core State Standards.
Short earned a Doctor of Education degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College, a Master of Education degree from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, and a Bachelor of Science degree in biology from Rhodes College.
