Richard (Dick) L. Allington is an American scholar who was a professor of education at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville from 2005 until his retirement in 2017.
[1][2] Allington grew up on a dairy farm in rural Michigan and attended a one-room schoolhouse through 6th grade.
He graduated from Cedar Springs High School in 1965 and went on to Western Michigan University to become a teacher.
After graduating from Western Michigan University in 1968 with his Elementary Education and Social Science degree, he became a 4th and 5th-grade classroom teacher.
Although he had plans to eventually become a superintendent, his experiences during his doctoral study refocused his attention on academia and research.