My focus as an educator has been on the improvement of classroom teaching using research-based strategies, and the companion task of designing effective classroom assessments. These two endeavors involve all personnel in the education system from classroom teacher to local administrator to state supervisory staff. My varied background serving in each of these capacities, and as a liaison among them, has allowed me to work successfully with all the members of the education community as highlighted below:  As recent Director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, an organization designed to support Maryland schools as they work to meet new State and national assessment requirements, I created and implemented "Assessment for Learning Professional Development" modules for leadership teams at the school and district levels.  While Study Group Coordinator for Maryland ASCD, I designed and implemented a statewide action research project based on the text, "Classroom Instruction that Works" [An ASCD publication by Robert Marzano], which received an Outstanding Professional Development Affiliate Award from ASCD.  The "Writing Across the Curriculum Project", which I directed for Baltimore County Public Schools, Maryland, received the Center of Excellence Award from the National Council of Teachers of English.  At the Maryland State Department of Education, where I served as Specialist for the High School Improvement Project, I chaired the High School Improvement Staff Development Committee and wrote its report, "A Professional Developed Framework for Maryland's High School Improvement Program." My career began with fifteen years as an English teacher in the Baltimore County, Maryland school system, five of which were as a Department Chairman. From there I moved to the County level, where I became a Writing Resource Teacher. It was there that I designed the award-winning program on "Writing Across the Curriculum" noted above, a staff development program for 149 K-12 schools. I moved from that position to Lead Facilitator for the Office of Instructional Development and Grants, and then to Innovative Program Manager, within the County system. I was then asked to become a Principal for an Alternative Middle School, where I developed a program for at-risk students. My final position with the County was as Staff Development Facilitator for the Southwest Area, where I provided workshops for 30 schools (K-12), teachers and administrators. The Maryland State Department of Education was my next stop, where I was a Specialist for the High School Improvement Project. This largely consisted of identifying effective strategies through research, presenting them to the Superintendent and Board with a plan for implementation, and making the resulting staff development material available to Maryland educators, including through the department's website . I also served as the liaison for five large school districts.

I left the public sector to become Director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, a non-profit with strong ties to the local school districts, whose primary focus was to assist schools in meeting state and national assessment requirements. This position brought together all my areas of interest: research, staff development and assessment of effective strategies. Jay McTighe, co-author of Understanding by Design, is a former director of the Maryland Assessment Consortium, and it was through my work with Jay that I became a Faculty Member with ASCD in the UBD Cadre and a Co-Teacher with the Differentiated Instruction Cadre, as well as a co-author with Jay of several publications . Overlapping with the preceding positions was my work with various non-profits. I served a term as President of Maryland ASCD and, while serving as Study Group Coordinator for that group, I was responsible for the award-winning "Classroom Instruction that Works" project mentioned above. Currently, I am still a Board Member of the group and of the Atlantic Canada Connected Community. I have also served on the Boards of the Mid-Atlantic Association of Cooperation in Education, the Council of Education Administrators and Supervisors of Maryland, and BioTrek Naturalists, Inc. I served on the Advisory Board of the Masters in the Art of Teaching at Johns Hopkins University, where I also taught classes in "Action Research for School Improvement" and a "Teacher Leadership Seminar". My own Masters in Writing Degree comes from Towson University in Maryland, as does my Bachelors of Science. Please see the rest of this site for my publications, presentations and workshops.