Clifford Hill

Professor Hill holds an endowed chair at Columbia University, the Arthur I. Gates Professor of Language and Education at Teachers College. He also directs the Program in African Languages at the Institute of African Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs.

He has been a research fellow at a number of institutions abroad such as the Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik in Nijmegen and the Institut Nationale de Recherches Pédagogiques in Paris. In America, his research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, the National Institute of Education, the Fulbright-Hays Commission, the National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment, the Social Science Research Council, and the American Council of Learned Societies as well as by private foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Spencer Foundation. He has been invited to make presentations at major universities and research institutions all over the world.

This broad range of research experience is reflected in his publication record. His sociolinguistic research on African languages and cultures has led to publications in such fields as oral culture, literacy studies, multilingualism, and bilingual education. In particular, he has published widely on ways in which the resources of oral culture can be used in language and literacy development. His psycholinguistic research on language, space, and time has been published in academic journals and books in America, Europe, Africa, and Asia (and has been translated into various languages). In addition, he has published poetry and literary stylistics.

Professor Hill has authored a number of books and articles that deal with language and literacy assessment, most notably Children and Reading Tests and From Testing to Assessment: English as an International Language. He is currently directing a government-funded research project to develop a digital assessment model for the Pacesetter Program of the College Board. 

Professor Hill has served widely as a consultant to language and literacy programs in many parts of the world, especially in Africa and Asia. In recent years, he has worked in the People’s Republic of China to develop English language teaching in higher education. A major project has been to develop English language curriculum and assessment that supports Chinese students using the Internet to conduct research within their major fields of study.