Dr. Gareis teaches courses in curriculum development, instructional leadership, teacher mentoring, classroom assessment and program evaluation. He began his career as a high school English teacher and varsity soccer coach. He also taught middle school English, science and mathematics and subsequently led two different middle schools as an assistant principal and then as principal. Additionally, Dr. Gareis served as an assistant to the superintendent, with responsibilities in strategic planning and facilities design. In 2001, he joined William & Mary as an associate dean, in which role he directed the teacher preparation program and developed a network of partnership schools and clinical faculty in support of teacher preparation and school counselor education. As a faculty member at William & Mary, Dr. Gareis has worked with schools, school districts and state departments of education in the areas of classroom assessment, instructional leadership, curriculum development, teacher evaluation, teacher compensation, strategic planning and teacher mentoring.

Dr. Gareis frequently presents in local, state, national and international venues, and he is the author of numerous professional publications and the co-author of four books: Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019); Teacher-Made Assessments: How to Connect Curriculum, Instruction, and Student Learning (Routledge, 2008; 2015); Teacher Pay and Teacher Quality (Corwin Press, 2006); and The Handbook on Teacher Portfolios (Eye on Education, 2001). He is past-president of CREATE (the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teaching Effectiveness), and he is the recipient of state and national awards for technology innovation (from the University Council for Educational Administration), research (from the Virginia Educational Research Association), and excellence in research-based professional development (from Division H of the American Educational Research Association).