Under Ruth McKenna's leadership, WestEd initiated the Local Accountability Professional Development Series (LAPDS) in 2003 to help school districts meet the tough accountability requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

LAPDS has grown nationwide with staff from Learning Innovations led by Steve Hamilton east of the Mississippi and the Comprehensive School Assistance Program led by Joe Sassone west of the Mississippi. The project won the WestEd "Scaling Up" award in 2008. Using LAPDS training and implementation rubrics, districts and schools in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Kansas are using common formative assessment data to plan standards-based instruction with significant student achievement results.

In 2007, LAPDS work was expanded to bring together all of the service projects in WestEd that support district improvement under an umbrella project. DistrictsMovingUp was launched in Fall 2007 to provide comprehensive district improvement services grounded in the research on best practices of high performing districts and lessons learned from WestEd's experience in low-performing schools and districts serving as an external entity. Currently, McKenna is leading WestEd staff in the Summit District Improvement Initiative in the state of Washington. This initiative is a pilot program involving eight school districts that are implementing comprehensive reform. WestEd staff lead needs assessment and action planning in eight Summit Districts and provide follow-up implementation coaching.

Prior to joining WestEd, McKenna served as Superintendent of New Haven (California) Unified School District, where she led the district to adopt graduation requirements that guaranteed the eligibility of every student to the California State University and University of California systems. Specifically, McKenna helped the district implement the California Content Standards, establish multiple measures for student performance evaluation, open preschool programs at every district elementary school, and establish school-level accountability for students at risk of failure.

Under McKenna's leadership, the district's students surged well above the state average in the following areas:

• participation in high school courses required to be admitted to the University of California: 11 percent higher than state average;
• percentage of eighth graders proficient or advanced in Algebra: 14 percent higher than state average;
• participation rate in biology and chemistry courses: 17 percent higher; and
• closed gap between lowest- and highest-performing schools on API 2000-2003: 46-point reduction. In addition, the lowest scoring school on API 2003 was 100 points higher than in 2000.

Earlier, as Associate Superintendent in the New Haven School District, McKenna helped move New Haven to the forefront in technology integration in the classroom and the workplace.

During 1995-1998, McKenna served as Chief Deputy Superintendent for the California Department of Education, where she helped implement strategies for education reform. As part of the Challenge Initiative, McKenna assembled representatives from school districts statewide to draft the first set of academic standards for the state, known as the Challenge Standards.

McKenna founded the New Haven Schools Foundation and led the Citizen's Advisory Committee on Race and Ethnic Relations, which later became a model program in Alameda County, California. She has been a member of both the Board of the Tiburcio Vasquez Health Center and Education Committee of the Alameda County Economic Development Advisory Board. Through the years, she has represented the school district to the Union City Chamber of Commerce.

McKenna received a BA in English from the University of California, Davis, and an MS in human resources from Golden Gate University.