About Me
Rebeca A. Cooper, Ed.D.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Rebeca Cooper joined 爱神传媒 in 2025 as an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, where she teaches research methods in the doctoral program and chairs dissertation research.
Her work sits at the meeting point of measurement and leadership. She studies whether the assessments schools depend on actually measure what leaders believe they measure, and what it costs students when they do not. That work spans the reliability of locally developed tests, the measurement of student and teacher growth, the effects of the STAAR redesign on student performance and accountability, and whether growth is distributed fairly across student groups. She also works in improvement science and action research, partnering with campus and district teams on problems that have resisted easy solutions.
Before entering higher education, Dr. Cooper spent two decades in Texas public schools as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent for research, accountability, and planning. That experience shapes how she teaches and how she partners with districts. She has provided research support and professional learning to school systems and regional education service centers across Texas, and authored OnTarget, an assessment and growth analysis tool used by Texas districts.
In the classroom, she approaches statistics as a language students can learn rather than an obstacle they must survive. Her recent book chapter offers a framework for helping doctoral candidates align research questions with research design. She currently chairs eleven doctoral candidates, and a dissertation completed under her chairship received the 2026 Edgar L. Morphet Dissertation of the Year Award from the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership.
Dr. Cooper also chairs the East Texas ABOTA Teachers Law School Conference, which delivers school law training to regional educators at no cost, and reviews for journals in educational leadership.
She earned her EdD in educational administration from Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Her work sits at the meeting point of measurement and leadership. She studies whether the assessments schools depend on actually measure what leaders believe they measure, and what it costs students when they do not. That work spans the reliability of locally developed tests, the measurement of student and teacher growth, the effects of the STAAR redesign on student performance and accountability, and whether growth is distributed fairly across student groups. She also works in improvement science and action research, partnering with campus and district teams on problems that have resisted easy solutions.
Before entering higher education, Dr. Cooper spent two decades in Texas public schools as a teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent for research, accountability, and planning. That experience shapes how she teaches and how she partners with districts. She has provided research support and professional learning to school systems and regional education service centers across Texas, and authored OnTarget, an assessment and growth analysis tool used by Texas districts.
In the classroom, she approaches statistics as a language students can learn rather than an obstacle they must survive. Her recent book chapter offers a framework for helping doctoral candidates align research questions with research design. She currently chairs eleven doctoral candidates, and a dissertation completed under her chairship received the 2026 Edgar L. Morphet Dissertation of the Year Award from the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership.
Dr. Cooper also chairs the East Texas ABOTA Teachers Law School Conference, which delivers school law training to regional educators at no cost, and reviews for journals in educational leadership.
She earned her EdD in educational administration from Texas A&M University-Commerce.