Hilary Dack

Hilary Dack is a Professor in the department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education and serves as program director for the B.A. in Middle Grades Education. Her areas of specialization are differentiated instruction and effective instructional decision-making in K-12 general education classrooms.

Dack teaches courses on the science of learning, middle grades education, instructional design, and differentiating instruction for academically diverse learners. Before earning her Ph.D., Dack taught language arts, math, science, social studies, and English as a second language at the middle grades level. She regularly leads professional development workshops for elementary, middle, and high school faculties on differentiated instruction, the science of learning, and high-quality curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices.

Dack’s current scholarship focuses on how teacher education programs prepare preservice and early career teachers for effective instructional decision-making. Her research has been published in leading journals across multiple fields, including Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Counseling & Development, Theory & Research in Social Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education. Her publications for practitioners have appeared in Phi Delta Kappan and Educational Leadership, and she serves on the International Editorial Advisory Board of Learning and Instruction.

Dack’s research has earned the American Educational Research Association’s Social Studies Research SIG Outstanding Paper Award and the Cato College of Education’s Award for Excellence in Research. She is also a recipient of the Cato College of Education’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. Upon concluding her doctoral studies, she received the University of Virginia’s Bruce Gansneder Outstanding Dissertation Award and the University of Virginia’s Edgar F. Shannon Award given annually to the School of Education’s outstanding graduate.

Dack is a former president of the National Association of Professors of Middle Level Education. She has also served as a resource expert on middle grades education to North Carolina legislators and policymakers. Her contributions to the field of middle grades education received national recognition when she was named the 2025 Outstanding Professor of Middle Level Education by the National Association of Professors of Middle Level Education.

Education

• Ph.D. – University of Virginia, Curriculum & Instruction
• M.Ed. – University of Virginia, Gifted Education
• J.D. – University of North Carolina School of Law
• B.A. – Davidson College, English