Experience

• Florida State University

  Graduate Research Assistant

  FSU Adolescent Literacy Initiative (Carnegie Corporation) – appointed to study instructional staff as a Content & Literacy Specialist
  
  North East Florida Educators Consortium; Florida Reading Initiative (DOE) – appointed to Program Evaluation Team
  
  Teacher Quality Project (IES) – named Project Director
  
  

• Florida State University

  Graduate Teaching Assistant

  EDF 4210. Educational Psychology: Developing Learners
  
  This course is designed to introduce students to concepts of human development, learning, and motivation as foundations for the planning and implementation of classroom instruction. Students are expected to acquire and use theoretical knowledge to inform decisions about strategies development, learning, and achievement.
  
  -- Florida Educators Accomplished Practices Scores for the 2007-08 school-years show 83% of students scoring “Prepared” or higher; with 43% of those scoring “Distinguished” on a criterion-referenced performance assessment.
  
  -- Students rated the instructor as “Excellent” in planning, delivery, and respect for students (84%, with 14% ranking “Very Good”, 2% “Good”, and 0% “Fair” or “Poor”).
  
  
  EDF 4430. Classroom Assessment
  
  This course prepares prospective teachers for activities related to assessing students including establishing validity evidence, using traditional and alternative assessment strategies, interpreting and using data to improve achievement, and utilizing assessment in the process of learning.
  
  -- Students rated the instructor as “Excellent” in planning, delivery, and respect for students (95%, with 5% ranking “Very Good”, and 0% “Good”, “Fair” or “Poor”).
  

• Ascend Learning Charter Schools

  Director of Data and Analytics

  - Conduct quantitative analyses of student achievement data; faculty and other stakeholder survey data; and other school level data to identify strengths and weaknesses within each of the Ascend Learning schools
  
  - Lead field visits to Ascend Learning schools and performs qualitative analyses of interview and field notes
  
  - Convert findings into internal reports and tools that can inform research and practice. Respond to requests from key stakeholders in the organization for additional data and analysis as needed
  
  - Work closely with Deans of Instruction and school teams to support their ongoing use of data to inform decision making, improve instructional delivery, and address potential concerns with the curriculum, lesson plans, pacing, and instructional delivery.
  
  - Align curriculum and assessment methods to ensure students were mastering standards in preparation for the New York State Exams (NYSE):
  -- In Language Arts and 2012, in every Ascend school and grade, students posted higher proficiency levels on the NYSEs in English math than their peers in the community school districts in which the schools are located, in New York City, and in the state as a whole, additionally proficiency levels in most grades and subjects were higher than those of District 2, which comprises the Upper East Side, SoHo and TriBeCa, some of the wealthiest areas in Manhattan.
  
  -- Fourth- and fifth-graders posted the highest English scores on the 2012 state test of all Brooklyn schools run by charter management organizations; 67% of 5th grade and 76% of 4th grade were proficient or higher (advanced) in ELA and 85% of 4th and 5th grade were proficient or higher in math, an increase from the previous year scores of 53% proficient in ELA, and 58% proficient in math.
  
  -- Third-graders posted higher scores than their comparison groups posting 61% proficient or higher in ELA, and 78% proficient in math.
  

• Democracy Prep Public Schools

  Director of Curriculum and Instruction

  The Director of Curriculum and Instruction plays a vital role in ensuring the quality and alignment of Democracy Preps internal curricular program by working with members of the Academic Team, School Leaders, and classroom teachers to ensure that curriculum is appropriately aligned to the demands of state exams. The DCI provides teacher coaching, professional development, and works with teachers to modify curricular resources as needed to meet the students' mastery goals.

• KIPP New Jersey

  Managing Director of Teaching and Learning

  - Lead the Instructional Leadership Team; meet weekly with instructional leaders to review their work with the schools and progress monitor Common Core implementation, lead monthly professional development on instructional coaching for the instructional leadership, and set establish instructional implementation goals for Common Core State Standards, PARCC aligned assessments, and data-driven instructional practices.
  
  - Lead the Instructional Vision Team, content team/department chairs from across the region; provide monthly coaching to department chairs and school-based instructional coaches to ensure curriculum alignment to the Common Core State Standards, Next Generation Science Standards, and Historical Thinking Standards, and lead the process of curriculum alignment and development for History and Science courses grades 5-12.
  
  - Lead the Special Education Regional Team; manage the interim Director of Special Education to ensure special education and ELL compliance, set vision for growth of regional special education team, meet weekly with special education department chairs at each of the schools to ensure progress monitoring and growth of their coaching skills, collaborated with team for development of self-contained programs and services for students with specific needs, and help develop an Extended School Year program that includes all related services for students with special needs.
  
  - Established systems, routines, and protocols for data-driven instructional decision making that included transition from Excel based data tools to the use of data-base tools including the Illuminate Education online assessment platform, and Tableau based data reports. Developed protocols for use of daily, unit, interim, and annual data sets.
  
  - Awarded a TEAMspy for displaying the core value, Improvement; award given to the single person who displays a constant drive to improve their practice, the work of their team, and the region overall (2014).
  

• KIPP Foundation

  Assessment and DDI Director

  - Quality control on K-8 assessments in reading, writing, and mathematics. Lead development KIPP’s curriculum-aligned assessments. Manage quality of item drafting and review. Conduct Item Response Theory (IRT) analysis. KIPP’s ELA assessments have been considered the "closest thing to the PARCC" by several KIPP CAOs and by an external reviewer from the PARCC and Student Achievement Partners.
  
  - Development of KIPP’s Instructional Coaching Protocol and other data-driven instruction protocols.
  
  - Facilitate instructional coaching and DDI sessions for KIPP School Leader Development (KSLP). Provide training and support to KIPP's newest instructional leaders as a member of KSLP Faculty (2013-current)
  
  - Partner with Network Leadership Development (NLD) team to provide develop professional development and support for regional instructional leaders.
  
  - Serve as a content expert for KIPP’s Partner Region team to pilot and innovate new instructional coaching methods.
  
  - Facilitate pilot tests for new DDI product with the KIPP Design Lab.
  o In the 2016-16 school year I led a pilot of DDI practices for teachers and leaders conducted with one of our smallest KIPP regions. The work supported teachers’ analysis of daily lesson-level data in addition to module-level data. Teachers and Assistant Principals (APs) met each week to analyze standard mastery data together and practice reteach strategies. Each week the school Principal facilitated a meeting with APs to analyze school-wide trends. In one year we improved the school's APY total score by almost two letters. The school was three students away from officially making the jump from a D school to a B school. The outcomes of the DDI pilot helped the school be the top performing elementary school to serve a student body with 100% labelled Economically Disadvantaged in their district.