Dr. Eric Dimmitt, clinical associate professor of educational policy and leadership in the College of Education, has been appointed to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Professional Standards Council for Teachers following an appointment by the state superintendent and confirmation by the Wisconsin State Senate.
Dimmitt will serve on the council until December 2025 as a representative of the Wisconsin Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The council was created in 1997 to advise the state superintendent on policy matters in the areas of licensure, educator preparation, evaluation and effective teaching.
“This is an important and well-deserved honor for Dr. Dimmitt to serve as the WAICU representative on the Professional Standards Council for Teachers,” said Dr. Heidi Bostic, dean of the College of Education. “He will be the first Marquette faculty member to serve on the council and, in doing so, he is able to further the college’s mission of developing and improving the teaching workforce in the state of Wisconsin.”
Dimmitt joined Marquette in 2023 after serving as associate dean and associate professor in the Kellner College of Education at Cardinal Stritch University. He spent nine years at Stritch following one year at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Since 2013, Dimmitt has taught undergraduate, graduate and doctoral level courses in technology integration, curriculum methods, classroom management, leadership and learning theory, systems thinking and innovation, instructional leadership, and K-12 school law and finance. He has also served as a department chair and doctoral adviser in addition to associate dean.
Dimmitt is licensed as a teacher, principal, director of instruction and superintendent in Wisconsin with over 20 years of K-12 experience as a teacher in central and northwestern Wisconsin and as an assistant principal and K-12 curriculum director in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. His areas of research and scholarship include collaboration in online learning environments, goal setting and strategic planning in organizations, and the use of arts integration in leadership development programs.
The primary role of the Professional Standards Council for Teachers is to advise the state superintendent on standards for the licensure of teachers, including initial licensure and maintenance, and renewal of licenses, to ensure the effective teaching of a relevant curriculum in Wisconsin schools.
The council proposes standards for evaluating and approving teacher education programs; policies and practices to use in developing effective teaching; ways to recognize excellence in teaching; and standards and procedures for the preparation and management of licensure of teachers. Members also provide an ongoing assessment of the complexities of teaching and status of the teaching profession in the state, as well as effective peer assistance and peer mentoring models, which include evaluation systems and alternative teacher dismissal procedures for consideration by school boards and labor organizations.
The Department of Public Instruction is the state agency that advances public education and libraries in Wisconsin. It is headed by the state superintendent of public instruction, a nonpartisan, constitutional officer elected every four years. State Superintendent Dr. Jill Underly, the current officeholder, is the 28th person to hold the post. The agency was created in 1848, the year Wisconsin attained statehood, when the state constitution provided for the establishment of local school districts and a free education for all children in the state.
