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| Dr. Allan Alson, Superintendent, Evanston Township High School - Evanston, Illinois |
 Allan
Alson came to Evanston Township High School in 1990 as Assistant
Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction and became the superintendent
in 1992. He began his career as a teacher in Philadelphia and served
as a teacher and administrator in various communities in Massachusetts.
In February 1999, Dr. Alson created the Minority Student Achievement
Network, a consortium of twenty-one urban-suburban school districts
across the United States devoted to discovering, developing and
implementing the means to improve the academic achievement of students
of color. Districts in the network will collaboratively conduct
and publish research, analyze policies, and examine practices that
affect the academic performance of minority students. |
| Gene Thompson-Grove, Co-Director, National School Reform Faculty |
 Gene
Thompson-Grove has been Co-Director of the National School Reform
Faculty (NSRF), a national program begun at the Annenberg Institute
for School Reform and now housed at the Harmony Education Center in
Bloomington, Indiana, from 1995 to the present. NSRF works with educators
to create and sustain professional learning communities in their schools
through Critical Friends Group (CFG) and other initiatives. CFGs are
comprised of educators who make their practice public, analyze and
reflect on their work together, and provide each other with critique
and support - all in the name of increased student achievement. Through
NSRF, Thompson-Grove also coordinates the national Looking at Student
Work Collaborative. She is one of the developers of the Looking at
Student Work web site (www.lasw.org), is the author of the Consultancy
Protocol, and has written various other protocols and support materials
for creating and sustaining professional learning communities and
studying student work collaboratively. In addition to her work with
NSRF, Thompson-Grove works with several reform organizations and school
districts and facilitates national and regional seminars on examining
student work collaboratively, understanding school culture, creating
professional communities in schools, and engaging in collaborative
inquiry. Her most recent work has included assisting large schools
create small, student focused schools and learning communities. |
| Dr. Adam Urbanski, President, Rochester Teachers Association - Rochester, NY |
 Dr.
Adam Urbanski is the president of the Rochester (NY) Teachers Association
and a vice-president of the American Federation of Teachers. A native
of Poland, he immigrated to the United States in 1960 at the age of
14. He earned his Ph.D. in American Social History from the University
of Rochester. A former high school teacher and college professor,
Dr. Urbanski is an active proponent of change in education. In Rochester,
he proposed and designed an internship program for new teachers, a
peer review intervention plan, a career ladder, and a homework hotline
service for students. Dr. Urbanski is the director of the newly established
Teacher Union Reform Network (TURN) aimed at creating a new vision
of teachers' unions that supports needed changes in education. He
was a trustee of the National Center for Education and the Economy
and a Senior Associate to the National Commission on Teaching and
America's Future. He served on AFT's Task Force on the Future of Education
and is a recipient of Phi Delta Kappa (Rochester Chapter, 1983) Leadership
in Education Award. He also served on the Harvard University, Kennedy
School of Government, Executive Session on "Making the System
Work for Children in Poverty;" the Federal Department of Education
Board of Directors of the Fund for Improvement and Reform of Schools
and Teaching; the Advisory Board of Harvard University's National
Center for Educational Leadership; the Board of Advisors of "Education
for Democracy/International;" the Policy Working Group at the
Annenberg Institute for School Reform; the National Board for Professional
Teaching Standards; and the national Assessment Governing Board. Dr.
Urbanski appeared on several nationally-broadcast television programs,
including the NBC Today Show, ABC News World Report, CBS Newswatch,
and PBD MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour. Articles about him and his work
appeared in U.S. News and World Report, Teacher Magazine, Education
Week, The New York Times, The American Teacher, Newsweek, Fortune
Magazine, Business Week, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications.
His own articles, essays and commentaries were published in several
educational and popular publications. |
| Ron Ritchhart, Project Zero, Harvard University Graduate School of Education |
 Ron
Ritchhart is a research associate at Project Zero, Harvard Graduate
School of Education. His research focuses on understanding, supporting,
and helping to develop the kinds of thoughtful learning environments
that support powerful learning for both students and teachers. This
guiding interest has lead him into research on intellectual character,
mindfulness, thinking dispositions, cultures of thinking, teaching
for understanding, creativity in teaching, and conversations about
student work. Ron's research tends to be classroom based and a strong
theme of learning from best practice runs throughout his work. Currently, Ron is principal investigator for the Creative Classroom Project and co-principal investigator, with David Perkins and Shari Tishman, for the Innovating with Intelligence Project. The Creative Classroom Project investigates innovative practices teachers use to develop learning environments that support students' creativity, understanding, and high-end thinking. Each year the project produces a video and study guide highlighting these teaching practices. The Innovating with Intelligence project develops materials that help teachers foster students' thinking dispositions through the exploration of a set of six "thinking ideals:" truth, beauty, imagination, understanding, fairness, and self-direction. In addition to his research work, Ron is actively engaged with professional development around teaching for understanding through ATLAS and the International Schools Consortium. Both of these projects seek to provide ongoing development and support for teachers as they use the ideas of teaching for understanding and cultures of thinking to enhance their teaching. Ron's dissertation research on how teachers create thoughtful learning environments that support the development of students' intellectual character are reported in his new book: Intellectual Character: What it is, Why it matters, How to get it. Other recent research projects include the Patterns of Thinking project with David Perkins and Shari Tishman and the Teaching for Understanding Project with David Perkins, Howard Gardner, Stone Wiske, and Vito Perrone. Prior to joining the Project Zero research group, Ritchhart taught for fourteen years in Colorado, Indiana, and New Zealand. He has taught middle school mathematics, elementary school, and served as a mathematics coordinator. In 1993 he received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Secondary Mathematics Teaching. Ritchhart also helped initiate the Math Project at the Public Education Business Coalition in Denver and taught math and science methods in the Initial Teacher Certification Program at the University of Denver. Ron's interest in the teaching of mathematics for understanding has lead him to author three books on the subject. Ron earned his Ed.D. degree (2000) in human development and psychology from Harvard University. Prior to attending Harvard, he earned an M.A. degree (1990) in curriculum and instruction from the University of Colorado at Denver, and a B.S. degree in education from Indiana University. |
| Ira C. Weston, Principal, Paul Robeson High School for Business and Technology - Brooklyn, NY |
 Ira
Cornelius Weston is currently in his eighth year as principal of Paul
Robeson High School for Business and Technology in Brooklyn, New York.
His high school has been an ATLAS school for five years and a member
of the Foundation for Excellent Schools for nine years. He speaks
often for both organizations on issues of school culture and urban
education. Paul Robeson High School has also maintained a fourteen
year comprehensive partnership with Salomon Brothers/CitiGroup, one
of the world’s leading financial institutions. They have given
over two million dollars in college scholarships to Robeson students.
Before coming to Robeson in 1986, Ira taught for six years overseas
beginning as a U.S. Peace Corps teacher in Kenya, East Africa. He
subsequently taught in Thailand, Taiwan and Japan before starting
a school for boys in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia where he taught for two
years. A proud native of Fredericksburg, Virginia, Ira is a third
generation graduate of Virginia Union University. He holds graduate
degrees from Columbia University and Bankstreet College of Education
and is currently a doctoral candidate at New York University. Ira
enjoys traveling, reading, family gatherings and relaxing at his family's
weekend/summer home in the Catskills. |
| Lynn F. Stuart, Principal, Cambridgeport School, Cambridge, Massachusetts |
| Lynn Stuart has served the Cambridge Public Schools as a Portuguese bilingual teacher, K-12 Bilingual Curriculum Specialist, Coordinator of Primary Education, and Principal of the Cambridgeport School, a K-8 school she helped to create in 1991. She also co-founded the Cambridge-Literacy Project, a collaboration between the Cambridge Schools and Lesley College in the area of literacy acquisition in early childhood. Lynn is a member of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future and also serves on the Board of Directors of Teachers21, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the professionalization of teaching in Massachusetts. Lynn has authored a variety of articles and has been a consultant and speaker on bilingual education, literacy acquisition, assessment and professional development and leadership. In 2003, she published a book on assessment entitled Assessment in Practice, Cultivating a School Culture of Learning and Assessment. Lynn graduated from Middlebury College and received a Master in Education degree from Tufts University. A former Peace Corps volunteer, she has a deep commitment to the education of children from broadly diverse backgrounds. |
| Parrie L. Brooks, TLA Specialist, ATLAS Communities, Inc. |
| Parrie L. "Penni" Brooks is ATLAS Communities' Teaching, Learning and Assessment Specialist. In this capacity, she provides technical assistance to the Regional Directors and Site Developers in the ATLAS sites. A wealth of professional experiences Pre-Kindergarten through Grade Twelve have caused some fundamental shifts in her thinking about professional integrity and obligations to students. Penni has facilitated Professional Development in a variety of venues during her thirty-four years as an educator. A firm believer that collaboration is the cornerstone of professional growth, she is a member of several professional organizations. |
| Patricia Maxfield, Regional Director/Site Developer, ATLAS Communities, Inc. |
| Patty Maxfield has worked in the field of education for two and one-half decades, as a teacher, facilitator and school reformer. She has been a Site Developer for the ATLAS Communities network of public schools in Washington State for six years and has considerable background in leading professional development for teachers and administrators. She has extensive experience in planning, organizing and leading institutes to help K-12 Pathways of schools create “a single school on many campuses.” She has led seminars and workshops as well as recruiting and training school staff and administrators. She has worked directly with teachers, administrators, and parents from eight Pathways to implement the principles and elements of ATLAS Communities and significantly increase student learning and achievement. She is a national facilitator for Whole-Faculty Study Groups as well as for the National School Reform Faculty. Patty has a Master’s degree in Education Administration, a strong background in teaching at the high school level and experience at the elementary level. |
| Ms. Marjorie Stealey, Principal, Norview High School - Norfolk, Virginia |
 Marjorie
Stealey has been the Principal of Norview High School in Norfolk,
Virginia for 11 years. She was the first woman high school principal
in Norfolk Public School District. Norview High has the highest state
scores in 9 of 11 Standards of Learning tests in city schools (two
of the schools are magnet schools) and it is the only high school
in Norfolk to meet Adequate Yearly Progress. Marjorie will be opening
a new high school in the fall of 2004, with a Leadership Center for
the Sciences and Engineering. She created the Office of Development
and Grants for Norfolk Public Schools and was the first non-administrator
in charge of the school system’s summer school program. Before
her current position, Marjorie was an English teacher, dean of students,
and assistant principal. |
| Betty Cobbs, Principal, Hawthorne Elementary School - Everett, Washington |
| Betty Cobbs has an impressive track record of facilitating
change in struggling schools. She has been an educator for 31 years,
twenty-two as an elementary principal. Her work has seen her in roles
as a primary non-graded classroom teacher, a second grade teacher,
and principal of three elementary schools. This, and her personal
experiences, have led her to a strong belief that schools must provide
equitable learning opportunities for all students. Betty is an instructional
leader who challenges the status quo of low achieving students, rallying
her staff to embrace a vision of students succeeding at high standards.
She has implemented a strong professional development program as part
of the Hawthorne Elementary School School Improvement Plan. Betty
will be sharing her work on creating a school culture that develops K-12 understanding. |