Robert Pianta, Ph.D. is the Novartis US Foundation Professor in the Curry School of
Education, and Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia where he also directs the
University of Virginia Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning.  Pianta's research
and policy interests are in research on classroom settings, their contributions to child outcomes in
preschool and the early school years, and how to improve teaching and learning in classrooms. 
Pianta has published more than 200 scholarly papers, the majority having a focus on schooling
and development in early childhood. He is the lead author on several influential books related to
early childhood and elementary education and is the senior author and developer of the
Classroom Assessment Scoring System, a method for assessing teacher/classroom quality being
used in many large-scale applications.

Pianta is Principal Investigator and Director of the Institute of Education Sciences National Center for Research on Early Childhood Education and is Principal Investigator of MyTeachingPartner, an NICHD-funded clinical trial evaluation of web- based support for teachers in pre-kindergarten classrooms. He is also a PI on The NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development, a 10-site study of the effects of child care on the
development of more than 1,300 children across the United States, and on The National Center
for Early Development and Learning's 11-state study of pre-kindergarten programs and their
effects on children's competence.  Pianta has been responsible as an investigator or director of
several major research efforts related to early childhood development and education, with total
funding exceeding $20 million over the past 15 years.

Pianta is also Program Director of the University of Virginia's Interdisciplinary Doctoral Training Program in Education Sciences and Editor of The Journal of School Psychology.  He consults with numerous foundations regarding early childhood issues, including the Pew Charitable Trusts Early Childhood Accountability
Project, the Foundation for Child Development, and the National Center for Children in Poverty's
Early Childhood Initiative, among others. He also consults with Federal agencies on policy and
research related to educating young children, including serving on the Head Start National
Reporting System Technical Work Group, and the Federal Advisory Committee for the National
Children's Study.  Pianta works with local and state early childhood training and evaluation
initiatives that include Chicago, New York City and state, Los Angeles, and the state of Wyoming.