Professor Hill held an endowed chair at Columbia University, the Arthur I. Gates Professor of Language and Education at Teachers College. He also directed the Program in African Languages at the Institute of African Studies in the School of International and Public Affairs where he taught the Hausa language.

Professor Hill was a research fellow at various institutions abroad such as the Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik in Germany and the Institut Nationale de Recherches Pédagogiques in France. In the US, his research was funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, the National Institute of Education, the National Institute on Student Achievement, Curriculum, and Assessment, the Fulbright-Hays Commission, and the Social Science Research Council as well as by private foundations such as the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation.

This broad range of research experience is reflected in his publication record. His sociolinguistic research on African languages and cultures led to publications in such fields as oral culture, literacy studies, multilingualism, and bilingual education. In particular, he published widely on ways in which the resources of oral culture can be used in language and literacy development. His psycholinguistic research on language, space, and time was translated into various languages and published in academic journals and books in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia. In addition, he has published poetry and literary stylistics.

Professor Hill authored a number of books and articles that deal with language and literacy assessment, most notably Children and Reading Tests and From Testing to Assessment: English as an International Language. Among his many assessment projects was a government?funded project with the College Board that explored how technology could be used to transform assessment, with particular attention to insuring greater equity for the increasing number of culturally diverse students who are entering American higher education.

Professor Hill served widely as a consultant to language and literacy programs in many parts of the world, especially in Africa and Asia. He continues to work with Professor Zhang Wei at Beijing University in the People?s Republic of China to develop English language curriculum and assessment that supports Chinese students using the Internet to conduct research within their major fields of study. He also works with a program in Harlem that provides mentoring for children who have a parent in prison.