Dr. James McPartland is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Social Organization of Schools (CSOS) at Johns Hopkins University, which is the parent organization that houses CRESPAR. For the past four years he has been head of the team that is developing the Talent Development High School with Career Academies.

The Talent Development High School is a comprehensive reform model for large high schools that face serious problems with student attendance, discipline, achievement scores, and dropout rates. The program has expanded to schools in 11 states. As part of the program, he worked with the school improvement team at Patterson High School in Baltimore to establish the first demonstration site, and continues to work with other Baltimore high schools to pilot test and evaluate the next components of the Model.

McPartland is active in national and regional invitational groups on high school reform, including the American Youth Policy Forum on High Schools of the Millennium, the Maryland State Department of Education Task Force on Dropout Prevention, Intervention and Recovery, the Baltimore City Public Schools Steering Committee on High School Reform, and as the high school specialist on the Harvard University Civil Rights Project for the Reauthorization of Title 1.

He received his doctorate in Sociology from Johns Hopkins and spent his early research years in Washington as a co-author of the famous "Coleman Report," Equality of Educational Opportunities, and as a contributor to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights report Racial Isolation in the Public Schools.