Susan Pimentel

25 College Hill, Hanover, NH 03755

Home: (603) 643-4869 * Cell: (603) 667-1359
E-mail: spimentel@standardswork.org

Education

Doctor of Jurisprudence, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1978

Bachelor of Science, Early Childhood Education, Cornell University, Ithaca,
NY, 1974

Professional Experience - StandardsWork, Inc

Co-founder of StandardsWork, Inc.: A nonprofit education consultancy located
in Washington, DC, StandardsWork helps improve student achievement by
aiding communities and the schools they support as they transform a vision of
academic success into a better standard of education for all students. The
organization works hand-in-hand with school districts, state agencies, and
civic groups around the country.

Professional Experience: Standards Development, Curriculum
Design, Assessment and Evaluation

Key National Education Reform Efforts (1996 to Present):

Achieve, Inc.: Serve in a variety of capacities as a consultant to Achieve, an
organization created by the nations governors and business leaders to help
states prepare all young people for postsecondary education, work and
citizenship by raising academic standards and achievement in Americas
schools. Key tasks range from substantive work as a reviewer of state English
standards; contributor to reports to states (and others such as the National
Assessment Governing Board) on their standards and related policies; and
work that involves facilitation and design of training programs for state
personnel.

American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE): Served as
the principal facilitator of several teams of content area experts from around
the nation charged with determining the content for a new national teacher
test. ABCTE addresses the need to place a highly qualified teacher in every
classroom to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind. Areas of content
developed include elementary English, mathematics, science, and social
studies; secondary English, mathematics, science, history, civics, geography;
and special education content and skills.

American Diploma Project (ADP): Served as Senior Policy Consultant --
providing research, technical assistance, and policy guidance -- to the ADP, a
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partnership of four national organizations (Achieve, Inc., The Education Trust,
The Fordham Foundation, and the former National Alliance of Business) and
five states (IN, KY, MA, NV, TX) designed to close the gap between high
school demands and postsecondary expectations. Work continues today in a
second generation ADP under the auspices of Achieve, Inc. that involves
providing technical assistance (individually and in groups) to states that have
joined the ADP network as they work to close the gap between their high
school demands and postsecondary expectations.

Carnegie Corporation of New York: Worked with partner organizations,
including the International Reading Association, the National Council of
Teachers of English, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, the
National Science Teachers Association, and the National Council for the Social
Studies, to formulate standards for middle and high school literacy coaches.
Synthesized and refined the work of the teams into a joint publication
entitled, Standards for Middle and High School Literacy Coaches.

Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) Schools: Served as trainer for KIPP
School Fellows preparing to lead charter schools around the nation for middle
and high school students who live in high need urban and rural areas. As part
of this work, developed the KIPP graduate standards (grade 8 and high
school) in the core areas of English, mathematics, science, history, civics,
geography, and economics, around which KIPP schools are expected to
organize. Work continues as a coach to individual school leaders.

National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB): Served as project director
(and chief author) of a study under the auspices of StandardsWork that
provided recommendations to NAGB on ways to increase participation and
motivation by 12
th
graders on the NAEP. Involved in a related effort (under
the sponsorship of Achieve, Inc.) to make the national assessments in reading
and mathematics better measures of readiness for college and new economy
jobs.

Office of Vocational and Adult Education: Serving as lead consultant to a
multi-year, multi-state adult education reform effort. The first phase provided
training to states just beginning their standards reform efforts. The second
phase is dedicated to providing intensive training and technical assistance to
six state teams on how to translate standards into aligned classroom
instruction and assessment. In addition, assisted several participating states
(FL, PA, TX, and VA) with particular issues related to their reform efforts.

ParentPowerWorks: Sponsored under the auspices of the US Department of
Education, worked to empower low income parents in Maryland and the
District of Columbia to "be the power behind their childs education through
the design of a training program that taught parents the fundamentals of
school accountability; how to become effective advocates for their child and
partners in the educational enterprise; and their specific rights under the
federal No Child Left Behind law.

Teachade: Built the curriculum framework (searchable database) for the
launch of the first online community for teachers to build and share resources
that can enhance lessons for their students.

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Key State Education Reform Efforts (1994 to Present):

Arizona: Over the course of nearly a decade, assisted various state divisions
with the development of standards and accompanying policies and resources
from pre-kindergarten through adult education, including targeted work with
English Language Learners and the Governors P-20 Council. Encompassed in
this work has been the development of world-class standards and aligned
curricula, the selection (and refinement) of parallel assessments, the
development of professional supports to ensure full implementation of the
reforms, and the training of standards specialists to work with local programs
on implementation.

California: Worked with the politically charged California Commission on the
Establishment of Academic and Content Standards to develop what are
considered by many to be among the best standards in the nation. Developed
an extensive feedback process to ensure they received support from - and
ownership was felt by - educators, parents, students, businesses, and civic
organizations. Work continued recently with three California school districts
and their business and postsecondary stakeholders desirous of taking their
systems to the next step.

District of Columbia: Coordinated the development of standards in the core
areas of English, mathematics, science, and social studies. Moved on to
facilitate the development of curriculum alignment activities, including the
development of sample activities, the correlation of released assessment
items, the identification of power or priority standards, the organization of
content into rational and sequenced units, the selection of textbooks and
resources (and correlating those resources to specific standards). Work
continues on a range of curriculum development and implementation efforts.

Indiana: On behalf of the Indiana Higher Education Commission, engaged in
groundbreaking work to create "super standards, representing original
thinking about how individual content standards are connected and helping to
identify big ideas around which teachers could organize their lessons.
Connected to this effort, conducted a review of their standards at the high
school level to identify priority content from which teachers could organize
instruction into units and the state could develop assessments. Evaluated the
quality and completeness of the states standards and curriculum resources
and made recommendations for improvement.

Louisiana: Served as facilitator of the Governors High School Redesign
Commission and provided expertise, research, and analysis of issues
regarding high school policies, practices, and emerging trends across the
country. Work continues with a related task force designed to consider
alternate diplomas or allowances to the standard diploma for special
education students.

Maryland: Worked with teams of teachers to revise their English language
arts and social studies standards that had received poor marks nationally.
Subsequently, the states overall rank (for quality of standards) was 43
rd
; in
2000, one year after, it had moved to 10
th
place.

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Massachusetts: Served as a trainer and coach to new and hopeful charter
school leaders and their staffs through the Pioneer Institutes Center for
School Reform.

Ohio: Brought together a diverse group of professionals (mirroring different
sides of the reading wars) to develop standards for the Ohio Department of
Education.

Pennsylvania: Conducted a review of draft standards for the Board of
Education, calling for more clarity and rigor in their documents.

Virginia: Headed up a first-of-its kind review of the Virginia Standards of
Learning on behalf of the Virginia Department of Education.

Key School District Education Reform Efforts (1984 to 2005):

Ardmore, OK: Over a two year period, instituted a standards development
process, helped align curriculum, conducted a review of their achievement
markers to identify opportunities for improvement in practices and policy, and
conducted professional development around how to collect and analyze data
in a district where students did very well until the 8
th
grade. The first full year
following the intervention test scores skyrocketed.

Allentown, PA:Overhauled their K-12 curriculum targets so the district had a

comprehensive and appropriately rigorous set of standards, rather than wildly
variable sets of individual school standards. Helped the district identify
discrete academic improvement opportunities and facilitated community and
school board meetings to share the important results and gain agreement
about follow up steps.

Beaufort, SC Working with a small team of experts, the focus here was on
helping the district understand the critical elements that would drive reform
and embrace the best practices that would make standards work. In addition
to building rigorous curricula, this included building support - both within and
outside the school system - for using performance data to drive instruction
and other policies to support the mission of the particular division or
jurisdiction.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC: Chief consultant to the Superintendent and his

team charged with launching a standards-driven school reform effort. Efforts
included developing a strategic plan to oversee the effort and designing a
results-based principal and school evaluation tool, among a host of other
curriculum and assessment efforts that led the district to close the
achievement gap and to set new achievement records for all of its students.

Jackson Hole, WY: Identified important insights about instruction and
curriculum for schools in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Conducted teacher and
community workshops to discuss the findings and assist them in developing a
plan for change.

Kansas City & Columbia, MO: Designed and implemented training for the
districts administrative staff and school principals related to the development
of a fair and full school accountability program.
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Menasha, WI: Helped district teachers develop more rigorous and better
course sequences to align with their standards.

Prince Georges County, MD: Served as Special Counsel to the Superintendent

in the nation's sixteenth largest school district situated right outside of
Washington, DC.

Key Charter School Reform Efforts (2002 to Present):

Capital City Public Charter School: Recently evaluated the contents of their
numerous curriculum frameworks and provided suggestions about how the
documents might be strengthened and improved.

Friendship Public Charter Schools: Engaged in a host of ventures to align their
curriculum and instruction to the demands of the International Baccalaureate
and the recently developed American Diploma Project. Present work includes
assisting the schools in the development of a coherent intervention plan for
students who are working below grade level.

Harlem Village Academy: Developed a full complement of standards to serve
as a foundation for high-quality teaching, the development of relevant
curriculum, the selection of instructional materials, and the development of
diagnostic assessments. Helped the school to focus on "must-have
prerequisite competencies its entering students need to master in order to
succeed in grade level work.

Southwest Philadelphia Charter: Working on full range of projects to assure
full implementation of rigorous and relevant standards, instruction,
evaluation, and assessment for high school students who are expected to
enter the program considerably below grade level.

Professional Experience: Standards-Based Reform Policy
Analyst and Writer

Researcher and Writer for StandardsWork, Inc.:

Results Card: A description of a powerful new reporting tool, called the
Results Card, that helps communities and educators stay focused on
student achievement.

Driving Student Success: An overview of how to use the right mix of
multiple measures of student achievement to analyze performance.

HireStandards Leadership Profile: A tool to evaluate the potential
candidates for principalships.

Raising the Standard: An Eight-Step action Guide for Schools and
Communities: Coauthored best selling book with Denis Doyle, a blue print
for individuals, schools, and community organizations.

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A Parents Guide: What you need to know about your childs education and
where to go for support: As part of ParentPowerWorks, this publication
codifies the parent training program for use by a variety of community
organizations in Baltimore, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

Researcher and Writer for the International Reading Association: Synthesized the
findings of a literature review, Prepared to Make a Difference, and the early results of
the Certificate of Distinction into one user-friendly document about the
characteristics of exemplary reading teacher preparation programs. Developed a
self-evaluation tool for literacy coaches to serve as the organizing tool for the
development of a host of curricula and professional development materials.

Researcher and Writer for Achieve, Inc.: Severed as part of a small expert team
commissioned by Achieve, Inc., to examine in detail the mathematics and English
language arts high school graduation assessments that were given in the states of
Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas. Specific
responsibilities included shaping the analysis and working on the final report, Do
Graduation Tests Measure Up? A Closer Look at State High School Exit Exams. In
addition, as Senior Policy Consultant to the American Diploma Project, served as key
contributor to the publication, Ready or Not: Creating a High School Diploma That
Counts.

References available upon request.

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