Daniel J. Heck, Vice President at Horizon Research, Inc. (HRI), received a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics and History and a Master’s Degree in Education from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with a specialization in Educational Psychology, Quantitative and Evaluative Research Methodologies. Prior to joining HRI, Dr. Heck was a high school mathematics teacher, pre-school teacher, and an Associate Researcher at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research.

In more than 20 years at HRI, Dr. Heck has been Principal Investigator of multiple research grants: Mathematics Immersion for Secondary Teachers at Scale; Principles and Resources for Integrating Computational Thinking Into High School Science Courses; Peers Engaged as Resources for Learning Mathematics; All Included in Mathematics–Expansion and Dissemination; Mathematical Record Keeping Supports Cognition and Communication; and Development of a Research Agenda for Understanding the Influence of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics. He has served as a Co-PI or research partner for several other grants, and directed external evaluations of many mathematics, science, and computing education research projects. Based on his work, Dr. Heck is an author of the book for teachers Activating Math Talk: 11 Purposeful Techniques for Your Elementary Students, an editor of the book for researchers Approaches to Studying the Enacted Mathematics Curriculum; and author of numerous journal articles, book chapters, and reports for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.