Administrator’s Corner
School administrators play an essential role in setting the tone of the school, the district, and education for the state, the nation, and the world. Often the best administrators work behind scenes to promote excellence, shine the spotlight on the achievement of others, and hold the space for the vision of the future.
“We have really appreciated the services provided by CEI! I believe the professional development provided to the teachers will make for more meaningful instruction and student engagement in the future. We will certainly see how we might use your wealth of knowledge in the future. ”
Dr. Linda McKay
Executive Director
Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School
Washington, DC
Administrators: Check out my recent blog on Educational Opportunities – See the Column “Recent Posts” on this page.
The Leadership Training Institute LLC is facilitating school improvement planning in school districts in Ohio. Click on the images that follow for a glimpse of the approach we are taking. The Center for Educational Improvement, working with the Leadership Training Institute LLC, is bringing this planning process to Washington DC.
The Ohio School Improvement Process
Responding to Global Needs
Education is a primary variable for reducing hunger and poverty. The Center for Educational Improvements has pulled together a team that has extensive experience in working in developing countries. Dr. Thormann, our Director of International Education, has found that in working with ministries of education and NGOs, that a data-based approach is critical. She has helped to assess the state of education by conducting feasibility studies, reviewing policies, evaluating teacher education programs, and analyzing educational equity for disadvantaged groups in several countries.
Selected Professional Experience in South and Southeast Asia
Dr. Thormann has over a decade of experience as an education consultant in India. As examples, she served as UNESCO’s national consultant to analyze the 3Rs (reading, writing, arithmetic) for the first three grades. She conducted a detailed study of the scope and sequence of the curriculum, and examined salient factors affecting skill acquisition such as teacher qualifications, textbook availability and quality, and teaching methodologies. She presented the findings at an E-91 (1) meeting in New Delhi in 1997. Under follow-on contracts, she synthesized the nine country studies and prepared camera-ready copy for publication by UNESCO, The Quality of Learning: Teaching the 3Rs in the First Three Grades in E-9 Countries. Additional work for UNESCO involved collaborating with colleagues from the National Council on Teacher Education on in-service teacher education, with the focus on developing standards and criteria for accreditation.
Dr. Thormann was a consultant to Catholic Relief Services/India for three separate activities. In 2000, she worked in close collaboration with the CRS technical sectors—education, health, agriculture, and humanitarian assistance to develop the five-year development plan (DAP) for Title II assistance, with USAID funding. Previously, for CRS, she had assessed the child labor situation in selected Indian states and helped prepare the proposal for USAID funding on preventing and eliminating child labor through quality education. In addition, on another assignment for CRS, she was the team leader for a mid-term review (MTR) for CRS/India’s education sector project. Dr. Thormann represented the U.S. National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), over a three-year period in the late 1990s, in negotiations and consultations with the Government of India (GOI) to develop and implement a joint research agreement on Indo-U.S. collaboration in the area of disability technology and research. In 2004, as a consultant to NIDRR, she led a delegation of U.S. experts on autism for an Indo-U.S. workshop on autism spectrum disorders, held in Hyderabad, India. She participated in a World Bank Joint Supervision Mission (JSM) in 1998 to review overall progress of the implementation of the District Primary Education Program (DPEP), with focus on pedagogical renewal and other reform initiatives. [1 The E-9 countries are the nine high population countries in the world, namely, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nigeria, and Pakistan]
Dr. Thormann also conducted a number of school expansion feasibility studies and school improvement studies in India (Calcutta, New Delhi, Mumbai), as well as in other countries (Nepal, Nigeria, Syria) for international and private schools. (continued on page 2)