Raffaella Borasi

Biography

Raffaella Borasi served as dean of the Warner School from 2001 to 2018. Under her leadership, the Warner School experienced significant growth, more than doubling student enrollment and research funding. A math educator by training, she has taken leadership roles in several National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded grants (for a total of over $9 million), spearheaded the launch of online courses and programs at Warner as well as the creation of programs to prepare online teachers, and has been the driving force behind the 2013 opening of Raymond F. LeChase Hall, the new state-of-the-art facility that houses the Warner School on River Campus. Most recently, she was instrumental in forging the University of Rochester's new partnership with East High School.

Borasi, who joined the Warner School faculty in 1985, has roots as a mathematics educator with special interests in an inquiry approach to teaching mathematics, school mathematics reform, professional development, and teacher education. She has degrees in mathematics and education from the University of Torino (Italy) and was a Fulbright Student at the State University of New York – University Buffalo, where she received her PhD in mathematics education. She has worked on several research projects funded by the NSF to improve mathematics instruction, including most recently four Robert Noyce projects to increase the number and quality of STEM teachers. She has published more than 40 articles in national and international journals and is the author/co-author of four books: Learning Mathematics Through Inquiry (1992); Reconceiving Mathematics Instruction: A Focus on Errors (1996); Reading Counts: Expanding the Role of Reading in Mathematics Classrooms (2000); and Blogging as Change: Transforming Science and Math Education Through New Media Literacies (2011). Borasi also co-authored an NSF-commissioned monograph, Professional Development that Supports School Mathematics Reform (2002), which was widely circulated by the NSF to school systems across the nation as a blueprint for successful school mathematics reform through professional development. Her current research and teaching interests are in the areas of entrepreneurship in education and online teaching and learning.

Borasi continues her work in school reform, entrepreneurship in education, and learning in the digital age, and now serves as the founding director of the Center for Learning in the Digital Age. She also continues to teach in the teacher preparation and doctoral programs.