Gerald "JD" Dryer, M.A.

Lecturer, Department of Educational Leadership Administration

Gerald (JD) Dryer is a career educator, teaching since 1995. He’s worked in settings ranging from the wilderness to graduate level courses, and everything in between. His teaching and research are rooted in experiential learning and social justice....

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Gerald Dryer

Contact Information

Education & Curriculum Vitae

Doctoral Student in Education Leadership and Policy Analysis, Â鶹¹ÙÍø of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education.
Master of Arts in Education, Goddard College, VT
Wisconsin Alternative Education License, Â鶹¹ÙÍø of Wisconsin-Whitewater
Bachelor of Arts in Education, Goddard College, VT
Undergraduate studies, Â鶹¹ÙÍø of Wisconsin-Madison

Gerald (JD) Dryer is a career educator, teaching since 1995. He’s worked in settings ranging from the wilderness to graduate level courses, and everything in between. His teaching and research are rooted in experiential learning and social justice.

JD began his education career in the outdoors, leading wilderness trips at Camp Manito wish YMCA. He was a wilderness therapist for incarcerated youth at the State of Wisconsin’s SPRITE Program. He continues outdoor teaching as a Lead Guide for Devil’s Lake Climbing Guides and as a coach for the Revo Devo youth cycling team.

As a teacher he helped transform Prairie Phoenix Academy from a remedial credit recovery program to a robust, project based and personalized school. He has taught graduate courses at UW-Whitewater and UW-Madison. In the Fall of 2025 he joins the Educational Leadership program at Gonzaga Â鶹¹ÙÍø as full-time faculty.

As a researcher, Dryer specializes in addressing social inequities within educational systems. His work centers the ways in which instructional design can allow students to make meaningful decisions about their learning, incorporating their identities and lived experiences in the process of meeting academic standards. He is a graduate of Malcolm Shabazz/City High School, holds a BA and MA from Goddard College in Vermont and received his Doctorate from the Â鶹¹ÙÍø of Wisconsin-Madison.

Peer Reviewed Works

  • Leger, M; Dryer, G; Gomez, L. (2024). Access, Achievement, Identity, Power: Conceptualizing Equity Centered Leadership Practice Through the Lens of Multidimensionality. AERA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.
  • Wright, L; Malkin, L; Henson, R; Dryer, G. (2024). Actionable Assessment: Designing Meaningful Score Reports to Support Student Engagement. National Council of Measurement in Education, 2024 Classroom Assessment Conference. Chicago, IL.
  • Dryer, G. (2023). Designing for Equity: Using Game Design tools to Create Social Justice. ISTELive23, Philadelphia, PA
  • Dryer, G. (2023). Differences in Practice: Initial Data from a Study Comparing Personalized Learning Practice in Charter and Non-charter Schools.” AERA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.
  • Dryer, G. (2022). A Framework for the Key Practices of Personalized Learning: Designing Instructional Routines for Student Agency. In Dryer, G. (Chair). Innovative Technology-Related Practices to Support Equitable Schooling. [Symposium]. AERA Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA.
  • Wu, Y., Wang, M., Yang, X., Rapp, H., Dryer, G., Tang, H. (2021). How K-12 Schools Districts in Wisconsin Communicate to Parents During the Outbreak of Covid-19: A Content Analysis from School District Websites. Emerging Researchers’ Conference - European Conference on Educational Research.
  • Halverson, R. R., Lee, C., Vadas, J., & Dryer, G. (2021, Apr 8 – 12). The Impact of Personalized Learning on Student Achievement and Behavior [Poster Session]. AERA Annual Virtual Meeting.
  • Good, A., Hara, M., Dryer, G., Harper, J. (2020). Teachers and Educational Policy Advocacy: Capacity, Agency, and Implications for Practice Advocacy in Education, in Ethridge, E., Davis, J., and Winterbottom, C. (ed): Advocacy in Education: Research-Based Strategies for Teachers, Administrators, Parents, and the Community
    Dryer, G. (2020, March 31-April 3). Assessing the Distribution of Practices of Personalization Across Districts. Carnegie Summit on Improvement in Education, San Francisco, CA. https://www.carnegiefoundation.org/summit/ (online summit)
  • Dryer, G.; Lee, C.; Arrigoni, J.; Strikwerda, A. (2020, April 16-21). Mapping Key Instructional Practices for Equity in Personalized Learning. AERA 2020 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. https://www.aera20.net/. (conference canceled)
  • Good, A., Hara, M., Dryer, G., Harper, J. (2020, April 16-21). Teachers and Educational Policy Advocacy: A Review of the Research on Capacity, Agency, and Implications. AERA 2020 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA. https://www.aera20.net/. (conference canceled)
  • Dryer, G. (2019). Mapping Personalized Learning. Connected Learning Summit 2019, Irvine CA.
  • Rawat, T., Dryer, G., (2018). A Model of Technology in Personalized Learning in Kallio, J., (chair) Personalized Learning: Perspectives from the Field and an Agenda for Research, Â鶹¹ÙÍø Council of Educational Administration Conference, Houston, TX (November 14-17).
  • Dryer, G. (2019). Crystal City: modeling structural racism through game design. Connected Learning Summit, Irvine, CA
  • Kallio, J., Dryer, G. (2018). Personalized Learning in K-12: Insights for Higher Education. Education Innovation Initiative, Office of the Provost, Â鶹¹ÙÍø of Wisconsin Madison, Madison, WI.