Karin J. Hess

Karin J. Hess is an educational researcher and consultant recognized internationally for her work on cognitive rigor, Depth of Knowledge (DOK), and learning progressions as foundations for curriculum design and assessment. She is the author of the widely used Hess Cognitive Rigor Matrix and has more than four decades of experience as a classroom teacher, school administrator, and assessment specialist, including extensive work on state-level standards and large-scale assessment systems. She is the founder and president of Educational Research in Action LLC, a Vermont-based consulting firm established after many years working on multi-faceted assessment projects at the Center for Assessment in New Hampshire.

Hess has authored and co-authored multiple books and practitioner resources focused on deeper learning and competency-based education, including Deeper Competency-Based Learning: Making Equitable, Student-Centered, Sustainable Shifts (with Rose Colby and Daniel Joseph), A Local Assessment Toolkit to Promote Deeper Learning: Transforming Research into Practice, Applying Depth of Knowledge and Cognitive Rigor: An Educator’s Guide to Supporting Deeper Learning, and Rigor by Design, Not Chance: Deeper Thinking Through Actionable Instruction and Assessment. Her work is widely cited in the education field, and she has served as a technical advisor to multiple organizations and initiatives working on performance assessment, competency-based learning, and high-quality local assessment systems.