Professor and Chair
Department of Health and Human Development
Dr. Tom Farmer is a special educator and developmental scientist. His research and teaching focuses on understanding the person-in-context and clarifying how experiences, opportunities, and developmental pathways of youth reflect the interplay of both proximal (e.g., family, peer, community) and distal factors (e.g., socio-political, geographic, economic). He is particularly interested in how teachers differentially contribute to students’ social experiences and patterns of school adjustment. He is also interested in data-driven approaches for leveraging natural developmental processes to support the creation and tailoring of evidence-based interventions for specific youth, classrooms, schools, and communities.
Instructional Interests
- Child and Adolescent Development
- Evidence-Based Interventions
- Interventions and Supports for Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders
Scholarly Interests
- Culturally, Developmentally, and Ecologically Responsive Practice in Schools
- Classroom and Social Dynamics Management
- Tiered-Systems of Adaptive Supports
- Research Practice Partnerships in Rural School and Community Settings
- Developmental Cascades and Correlated Constraints Perspectives of Intervention
- Prevention and Intervention for Bullying and Peer Victimization in Schools
- The Role of Teachers in Children’s Social Development
Selected Grants
- Principal Investigator. “Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Success across the Middle School Years: The SEALS II Intervention Development Program.” Institute of Education Sciences ($1,497,389).
- Principal Investigator. "Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Success - Project SEALS." Institute of Education Sciences ($3,952,267).
- Principal Investigator. "Aspirations and Preparation for the Transition from High School in Rural America.” Institute of Education Sciences ($3,200,000).
Featured Publications
- Farmer, T. W., Bierman, K. L., Hall, C. M., Brooks, D. S., & Lee, D. L. (2021). Tiered systems of adaptive supports and the individualization of intervention: Merging developmental cascades and correlated constraints perspectives. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 29.
- Chen, C-C., Farmer, T. W., Hamm, J. V., Brooks, D. S., Lee. D. L., Norwalk, K., Lambert, K., Dawes, M., Sterrett, B., & Rizzo, K. (2020). Emotional and behavioral risk configurations, students with disabilities, and perceptions of the middle school ecology. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 28, 180-192.
- Dawes, M., Farmer, T. W., Hamm, J. V., Lee, D., Norwalk, K., Sterrett, B., & Lambert, K. (2020). Creating supportive contexts during the first year of middle school: Impact of a developmentally responsive multi-component intervention. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 49, 1447-1463.
- Farmer, T. W. (2020). Reforming research to support culturally and ecologically responsive and developmentally meaningful practice in schools. Educational Psychologist, 55, 32-39.
- Farmer, T. W., Hamm, J. V., Dawes, M., Barko-Alva, K., & Cross, J. R. (2019). Promoting inclusive communities in diverse classrooms: Teacher attunement and social dynamics management. Educational Psychologist, 54, 286-305.
Engagement, Partnerships, and Professional Service
- Consortium member of the Middle School Success: The Path to Graduation (P2G) program, of The Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN).
- Past president of the Division for Research of the Council for Exceptional Children
- Co-editor, Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders