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Joseph Sassone, contact for west of the Mississippi
Stephen Hamilton, contact for east of the Mississippi
Stephen Hamilton, Director, District and School Services, Learning Innovations
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WestEd's Steve Hamilton supports comprehensive school improvement efforts, working with districts, state agencies, and institutions of higher education.
Hamilton serves as Director of District and School Services for Learning Innovations at WestEd. His recent work in formative assessment and local accountability systems has resulted in increased school and district use of formative and benchmark assessments and data to inform decisions about school programs and instructional practice. As a result of his work in Massachusetts and a state-funded middle school mathematics initiative, 10 districts are now using district and school assessments aligned to state frameworks (standards) to locally measure student academic gains. The Northeast and Islands Regional Educational Laboratory is studying these district local accountability practices to assess student achievement impact.
Hamilton also serves as Coordinator for Learning Innovations' work with the New England Comprehensive Center (NECC), NECC liaison to the Massachusetts Department of Education, and staff member for WestEd's Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center. His previous experience with Comprehensive Centers involved supporting and implementing Title I schoolwide programs and No Child Left Behind school improvement efforts.
His work as Regional Implementation Director for various Comprehensive School Reform initiatives resulted in New Bedford Taylor School being named by the state of Massachusetts as a "Commonwealth Compass School" for exemplary student academic improvement gains.
In addition to his technical assistance and research expertise, Hamilton has extensive experience in evaluation. He served as primary evaluator for several National Science Foundation-funded studies, including a three-year teacher enhancement initiative. Current evaluation studies focus on the use of district interim or benchmark assessments to inform practice and improve student achievement outcomes.
Hamilton’s extensive experience in school reform led him to coauthor Assessment Continuum of Schoolwide Improvement Outcomes: Implementing the Components of Systemic Schoolwide Improvement.
A member of WestEd's staff since 1997, Hamilton previously served as an elementary school principal and teacher, and director of an early childhood education program. He also worked with university professors, coordinating seminars for elementary school preservice teachers.
He has served as an elected member, finance chair, and chairperson on school committees in Vermont and Massachusetts. Along with experience and success in passing school budgets, negotiating contracts, and regionalizing a school district, Hamilton developed a standards-based superintendent evaluation informed by school committee goals and an established district vision of desired outcomes.
He received a BS in education and an MA in educational administration from the University of Vermont.
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Nicholas Hardy, Senior Program Associate
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Senior Program Associate Nick Hardy provides technical assistance and professional development in data analysis and dialogue, accountability and assessment, and facilitation to state departments of education, districts, and schools primarily in the Northeast.
A member of Learning Innovations (LI) at WestEd, Hardy works closely with LI's partner, the New England Comprehensive Center (NECC) to support Departments of Education articulate, organize, and improve their state systems of support for low-performing schools and districts. In 2007 and 2008, with Hardy's assistance, NECC sponsored the first regional symposium on support for low-performing schools, attended by state leaders throughout New England.
Hardy also has worked with NECC to help schools in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire increase their student test scores. In 2007, he helped NECC design and host a four-day literacy and leadership institute that engaged more than 20 school district teams in New Hampshire.
He also works in both New England and California in providing Teach for Success (T4S) services to school districts. T4S is a focused, collaborative, research-based framework and process that improves classroom instruction, K-12, and student achievement. Hardy has organized classroom walk-through teams, provided related professional development on using T4S data, and trained administrators and teacher teams on how to do their own walk-throughs.
Hardy works with several school districts in New Hampshire to define their own set of essential standards, develop a common understanding of the critical components of those standards, and then develop frequent formative assessments for classroom teachers to use as they adjust their instruction. Several districts have also instituted a daily time block to provide interventions for all students based on these formative assessments.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2002, Hardy served more than 25 years as an elementary school principal and a teacher of middle school language arts. He also served as the Executive Director of the New Hampshire affiliate of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD). Under his direction, ASCD dramatically increased its membership and influence in the state of New Hampshire. As a result of his ASCD accomplishments, Hardy was presented with a New Hampshire Excellence in Education Award in 2004.
He received a BA in English literature from Boston University, an MA in teaching from the University of New Hampshire, and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Study in educational administration from Northeastern University.
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Annabel Lee, Senior Program Associate
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Annabel Lee is a Senior Program Associate at WestEd. Her work with the agency's Local Accountability Professional Development Series (LAPDS) is to build the capacity of districts and schools to meet accountability goals, improve student performance through common formative assessments, conduct analyses of data to inform instruction, and implement and monitor effective teaching strategies and programs.
Under her leadership at Noralto Elementary School, LAPDS was implemented in 2007. Full implementation of essential standards (guaranteed minimum curricula), a common instructional calendar, use of teacher written common formative assessments, and reteach and enrichment classes, all coupled with time on task and multiple opportunities to practice, brought about a significant increase in student achievement from January 2007 to June 2008. Specifically, the school’s Academic Performance Index increased from 679 to 719 (40 points growth). In addition, proficient and advanced students in English language arts increased from 27% to 50% for second graders, 26% to 44% for fourth graders, and 26% to 52% for fifth graders on the California Standards Test.
Prior to joining WestEd, Lee was an elementary classroom teacher, intervention teacher, English learner resource teacher, and principal. She is bilingual in Hmong and English.
Lee received a BA in liberal studies from Stanislaus State University and an MS in educational administration from National University.
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Cynthia Lee, Senior Program Associate
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Cynthia Lee works with schools and districts to improve student learning and achievement. She has assisted districts in numerous states to create research-based practices focused on instructional strategies and the use of student data.
As a result of Lee's work, district educators learn to create customized local assessment systems and use the information to directly impact student learning in the classroom.
Lee provides consultation services to several districts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada and Kansas. The work has directly impacted student achievement on state tests in these districts.
With Lee's help, Bartlett Middle School in Porterville (CA) implemented a local accountability system. Staff created common formative assessments, which they use to implement a strong reteach and enrichment program for students in math and English language arts. Bartlett had been identified as a school in Program Improvement; however, in its first year of using this system, the school's Academic Performance Index score increased from 688 to 747. In addition, the percentage of students at proficient or advanced increased in all grade levels and content areas.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2008, Lee served as Principal at Empire High School in Vail School District (AZ) where she implemented the same research-based district accountability system. Empire opened in 2005 as the first high school where every student received a laptop in place of textbooks. In 2007 and 2008, the school received an "Excelling" label, as a result of high student achievement, from the Arizona Department of Education.
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Joseph Sassone, Director of Integrated Services
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Joseph Sassone joined WestEd's Local Accountability Professional Development Series (LAPDS) to help build effective school intervention systems and extend the agency's services in accountability.
As Director of Integrated Services, Sassone helps school districts meet the accountability requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Sassone has helped districts throughout the United States blend research-based instructional support with data-management technology to create a customized local assessment and accountability system. District educators, through LAPDS, learn how to accurately guide and track learning — demonstrably using student data to improve their schools.
Sassone's work has been a key component in helping schools and districts raise student achievement results on state assessments. He currently provides consultation to several districts in Arizona, California, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont. With the help of Sassone, LAPDS was implemented in 2007 at Noralto Elementary School in North Sacramento (CA) School District. The fifth-grade teachers fully implemented the reteach and enrichment classes with common formative assessments from January 2007 to June 2008. Subsequently, the school's student achievement results jumped significantly past the state average in English language arts. In addition, proficient and advanced students in English language arts increased from 26% to 52% for all fifth graders on the Californian Standards Test.
Prior to joining WestEd in 2006, Sassone served as Assistant Superintendent of Vail (Arizona) Unified School District, an LAPDS client. The collaboration between Sassone and WestEd resulted in Vail fully implementing the district accountability system and moving student performance, districtwide, from the lowest in the Tucson Valley to the highest. Vail was given special recognition by the Arizona Department of Education for exemplary growth in student performance in just four years. In over three years, this initiative moved a rapidly growing school district (8,200 students) from mediocrity to one of the highest performing school districts in Arizona.
Prior to becoming Assistant Superintendent, Sassone served as the district's Director of Human Resources, recruiting more than 100 teachers per year for a rapidly growing school district. He also implemented a robust new teacher induction program with cognitive coaching in early literacy, math, and essential elements of instruction. Throughout his career at Vail, Sassone was an instructor for preservice undergraduate teacher candidates in his specialty of classroom instruction. He also taught a graduate-level course in leadership for prospective building principals.
Previously, Sassone served as an Assistant Principal in the King Park (New York) Central School District, where he implemented a districtwide new teacher induction and cognitive coaching program. He also was Assistant Principal of an early learning center, high school, and middle school, and administrator in charge of the English as a second language program districtwide.
In addition, Sassone served as school counselor in the Northport-East Northport (New York) Union Free School District, where he implemented programs for students at risk of failure and the first new teacher and cognitive coaching program. He also was special education teacher and counselor for the Culpeper (Virginia) School District, and served as an Adjunct Professor at both Northern Arizona University and the University of Arizona South.
He is a member of the Para Los Niños Elementary Charter School Advisory Board, Los Angeles. He presents regularly at various conferences nationwide and has served as keynote speaker on several occasions.
In 2005, Sassone received the Golden Bell Award by the Arizona School Board Association for District Academic Achievement and the Spot Light Success Award for Using Data to Drive Instruction by the Arizona Department of Education.
Sassone received a BA in human relations from St. Joseph's College and an MS in school counseling, and a Professional Degree in administration and leadership from Long Island University.
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Ruth McKenna, Director, Field Services
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WestEd's Ruth McKenna works with the Project Management Partner Team for the SMARTER Balanced Assessment Consortium.
She serves as the consortium's PMP Liaison for the Assessment Design: Performance Tasks Work Group and the Formative Processes and Tools, Professional Development Work Group.
McKenna has worked in low-performing schools and districts to develop rigorous curriculum and assessment systems and ensure the opportunity to learn state standards for all students. She has helped districts in Washington, California, Arizona, Tennessee, and Mississippi meet district improvement targets by implementing core curriculum expectations.
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 New Have 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 received a BA in English from the University of California, Davis and an MS in human resources from Golden Gate University.
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Bob Rosenfeld, Senior Program Associate
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Robert Rosenfeld is a Lead Trainer and School Assistance and Intervention Team Lead with the Comprehensive School Assistance Program (CSAP) at WestEd.
Rosenfeld helps build the capacity of districts, schools, and those who work with them to plan, implement, and monitor research-based, comprehensive reform efforts.
He has been working with districts in California, Arizona, North Carolina, and Massachusetts to build local accountability systems to meet the challenges of No Child Left Behind and Adequate Yearly Progress.
Prior to joining WestEd, Rosenfeld managed the development of educational toys and educational software. He is a former math and science teacher and is bilingual (Spanish and English).
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Assessment Technology, Inc.
WestEd and ATI have partnered to provide districts with a comprehensive solution to local accountability. ATI's Galileo K-12 Online is a fully integrated system for managing learning that makes it possible for districts to build valid and reliable benchmark and formative assessments linked to academic standards by performance objectives. Districts use the advantages of Galileo's web-based technology to create, administer and electronically score tests, aggregate and report on student achievement, map curriculum, and link assessment data to imported student information. The integration of data from Galileo K-12 Online with WestEd's LAPDS helps districts succeed in using standards-based, data-driven decision making to benefit students, teaching and administrative staff on a daily basis.
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