Cecil R. Reynolds

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Cecil Randy Reynolds is an American psychology professor known for his work in psychological testing and assessment.

Reynolds was born on February 7, 1952 at the US Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. His father, Cecil C. Reynolds, was a career marine, enlisting in 1929 and retiring in 1960. His mother, Daphne, owned and taught at a private preschool and kindergarten for 25 years, later becoming a published poet and author of children's books. Reynolds attended New Hanover High School, graduating in 1969, and turned down a Presidential appointment to the United States Naval Academy by Richard Nixon, after being drafted by the New York Mets. He played on various minor league teams within the Mets organization, making 3 all-star teams in different leagues, prior to a career-ending injury in 1974, the year of his first major league contract.

Reynolds then returned to his education, earning his B.A. in Psychology in 1975 from University of North Carolina at Wilmington. He then attended University of Georgia (UGA), earning a M.Ed. in Psychometrics in 1976, an Ed.S. in School Psychology in 1977, and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology in 1978 while studying under Alan S. Kaufman and Ellis Paul Torrance (he was inducted into the UGA Hall of Fame for lifetime achievement in 2006). In summer of 1978 he took his first academic position at the University of Nebraska where he remained for 3 years, where he wrote the grants to obtain the Buros Institute for the University and became the first Director of the Buros Institute after its founder, Oscar Krisen Buros (Reynolds was Acting-director during the search for a permanent new director, 1979-1980,and worked as Associate Director in 1980-1981 prior to being driven south to Texas A&M University (TAMU) by the bitter Nebraska winters. In 2006, he was named the Buros Institute Distinguished Reviewer of the Year. He has remained at TAMU since 1981, where he is currently a Professor of Educational Psychology, a Professor of Neuroscience, and a Distinguished Research Scholar.

The American Psychological Association (APA) honored him with Early Career Awards from both the Educational Psychology and Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics divisions, and he won their Lightner Witmer Award. In 1999, he received the APA Division of School Psychology's Senior Scientist Award. He is Past-President of three APA divisions, School Psychology (16), Clinical Neuropsychology (40), and Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics (5). He is editor-in-chief of Applied Neuropsychology, and serves on the editorial boards of 13 journals. He served 12 years as editor and editor-elect of the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychology. Reynolds has served as Associate Editor of the Journal of Special Education and of School Psychology Quarterly. He is a Past-president of the National Academy of Neuropsychology as well and has received the Academy's Distinguished Clinical Neuropsychologist Award, the Distinguished Service Award, and the President's Gold Medal for service to the Academy. He received the 50th Anniversary Razor Walker Award from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington for his service to the youth of America. He received the Buros Institute Distinguished Reviewer of 2006 Award. He has multiple other national awards for research accomplishments and service as well.

In 1994 he was one of 52 signatories on "Mainstream Science on Intelligence," an editorial written by Linda Gottfredson and published in the Wall Street Journal, which presented a scientific consensus regarding current (then) findings on race and intelligence to assist in clarifying and differentiating mainstream consensus findings on the issue from some of the more scientifically controversial reports in Herrnstein and Murray's volume, The Bell Curve. ^[1]

Well-known publications include The Handbook of School Psychology, the Encyclopedia of Special Education, and the Handbook of Psychological and Educational Assessment of Children, among some more than 50 total books. He authored the widely used Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL),the Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, as well as co-authored the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC, now in its second edition, the BASC-2) along with Randy Kamphaus. The BASC-2 is the most frequently individually administered psychological test in the United States public schools. Again with Randy Kamphaus, he is senior author of the Reynolds Intellectual Assessment Scales, and is author or coauthor of a number of other psychological tests (e. g., Comprehensive Trailmaking Test, Koppitz-2 Developmental Scoring System for the Bender-Gestalt Test, Test of Irregular Word Reading Efficiency, Developmental Test of Visual Perception for Adolescents and Adults, the Developmental Test of Auditory Perception,DAP: IQ, Test of verbal Conceptualization and Fluency, and the School Motivation and Learning Strategies Inventory, among others) being one of the most prolific, and most often cited, authors in the profession.