Stafford, Curt (1926-2003)
Date Updated
10-23-2019
Department
Secondary Ed, Testing & Evaluation, Counselor Ed., Marketing, Library Science, Cyber. Systems, Instr. Tech.
Academic Rank
Professor
Year Retired from SJSU
1987
Educational Background
University of Illinois, 1957 Ed.D.
University of Illinois, 1950 MS
University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, 1947 BS
Morton Junior College, Cicero, IL, 1945 AA
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1944‑45
Teaching Experience
San Jose State University, 1957-1987
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, Summer 1962
University High School, Urbana, IL, 1947-1951
Administrative and Professional Experience
United States Navy, 1944‑46, 1951‑53; Reserve through 1966.
Research Associate, Central Michigan College, Mt. Pleasant, MI, 1955‑1957.
Consultant, Pacific Bell Telephone Company, 1965‑1974.
Selected Publications
"Public Relations and Test Results" (with Dwight Shafer), Clearing House, Vol. 35, #5, pp. 270‑272, Jan.,1961.
Secondary School Curriculum, Thornton & Wright (Chapter 2), Charles E. Merrill, 1963.
"Scoring Teacher‑Made Tests with the IBM 1620" (with John Bianchini), Educ. & Psych. Meas., Vol. 33, pp. 581‑586, Aut. 1966.
Test Bank to Accompany Computers and Information Systems (with Jerome Burstein), Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1986.
Files
Personal Commentary
Thank You, G. W. Ford, for hiring me in '57, and thanks, Bob Martin, for bringing me into the Test Office for 10 years with the venerable Harrison Heath. The overburdened faculty of the English and the Humanities Departments profited from our development of placement criteria based on ACT scores. (Remember "bonehead" English?) A great accomplishment was the scoring of teacher made tests by computer.. . thank you John Bianchini for taking my specifications and writing the program which did it! I'm also proud of the many institutional research studies we produced in the '60s; thank you Test Office support staff.
When I was chair of Secondary Ed ('70‑'74), we added tenure‑stream faculty for the first time since the late 'SOs; we denied tenure long before it became popular. A high point was a classroom visitation of AVP Bert Burns who was teaching Philosophy of Education. As I walked in, he said to the class, in his fashion, "This is Dr. Stafford; he's my department, chairman." Thanks to the Department Secretaries Louise Lindsay Zones and Kris Mercer, and to the late Frank Peluso for taking over as chair, and having me coordinate student teaching.
I regularly attended meetings of the Commission for Teacher Preparation and Licensing (Ryan Act) and had a tangible effect on teacher education regulations, especially after becoming a Commissioner in 1974. Working with Pacific Bell in an instructor training program was great; thanks to the late Dick Lewis.
My career at SJSU was exciting because of the varied academic assignments which brought me in contact with students from frosh to graduate and with colleagues in many, many departments. Thanks to fellow Education faculty whether in Sweeney Hall or elsewhere on campus, especially to the late John Wright who was my mentor for many years, and the students of Research Seminar in Education (EDINT 221), my favorite course. Finally, please give a cheer for the greatest collection of talent, and non‑talent, ever assembled during the noon‑hour in the Old Gym over 30+ years. Yeah, Shirts & Skins!!! (Sam, Charles, Frank, ST, Gunner Bob, Ted, and others of the hundred + who played.)
Date Completed: 11/96
Adapted from: Biographies of Retired Faculty San Jose State University 1997: A Project of the Emeritus Faculty Association of San Jose State University. San Jose, CA: The University, 1997.