John R. Slate, Ph.D., is a Full Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Sam Houston State University. He is primarily involved in the K-12 Educational Leadership doctoral program where he teaches the Academic and Professional Writing, Proposal Development, Applied Statistics I, and Applied Statistics II courses. At SHSU, he has chaired 110 doctoral students to completion, and over 150 doctoral students to completion throughout his 40-year career. His major research interests involve analyses of national and state education databases for school improvement efforts. To date, he has published over 450 peer-reviewed manuscripts,50 book chapters, and 14 peer-reviewed books. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the inaugural Theodore Creighton Publication Innovation Award from the International Council of Professors of Educational Leadership and Reviewer of the Year from the American Educational Research Association.