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Lori Van Houten
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Author:
Developing an Effective School Plan
As Senior Program Associate in WestEd’s Comprehensive School Assistance Program (CSAP), Lori Van Houten helps low-performing schools create sustainable and systemic change that results in improved student achievement.
Over the last five years, Van Houten has worked with over 30 low-performing schools nationwide. As a result, more than 90% of these schools vastly improved their test scores for all student groups and many of these schools are no longer considered low-performing.
Specifically, Van Houten helps schools and districts complete needs assessments; develop research-based comprehensive action plans; allocate resources to support continuous academic improvement; and develop the capacity to monitor the implementation of their student improvement plan. This work has led to requests for additional services from schools and districts.
Van Houten also provides technical assistance to schools and groups of educators in data-driven decision-making. Such expertise led to her coauthoring the recent WestEd publication, Developing an Effective School Plan: An Activity-Based Guide to Understanding Your School and Improving Student Outcomes. Via online events, conference presentations, and summer institutes, Van Houten and her colleagues have helped hundreds of school and district staff on how to use Developing an Effective School Plan to create, implement, and monitor their own plans.
Previously, Van Houten worked for over 25 years as a consultant, teacher, district employee, and researcher with schools and organizations serving students at risk of academic failure.
She received a BA in deaf education and elementary education from Michigan State University and an MA and PhD in linguistics from Brown University.