James W. Keefe

James W. Keefe was born in Los Angeles, California.He holds undergraduate degrees in philosophy and music, a master's degree and credentials in education, and a doctorate in Secondary Education (curriculum and research, 1973) from the University of Southern California. His professional experience includes junior high, senior high, and university teaching, and secondary school administration. He was a high school assistant principal and principal in Downey, California where his school was a member of the national Model Schools Project. He taught at the University of Southern California and Loyola Marymount University, both in Los Angeles. For more than 15 years, he was the Director of Research for the National Association of Secondary School Principals, in Reston, Virginia, near Washington, D.C. While at the Association,he served on various national boards and committees including the National Study of School Evaluation Evaluative Criteria Steering Committee, and the Advisory Committee of the Sizer Coalition of Essential Schools. He was President of the Learning Environments Consortium International (LEC), an independent, non-profit corporation committed to assisting schools in systemic design/redesign and in developing personalized instructional programs.

Dr. Keefe has been a frequent conference and convention presenter and is the author of more than 60 books, book chapters, monographs and articles on educational theory and practice. He is the major author of the Learning Style Profile used to assess student cognitive styles and preferences.He was the project director of the NASSP's Comprehensive Assessment of School Environments Information Management System (CASE-IMS) which included climate, satisfaction and efficacy instrumentation for students, teachers and principals.

He is a life-long musician and has directed and sung in many choral groups both in California and Virginia. He also has arranged choral music for many of these groups.