2022 Educator Effectiveness Summit
Welcome Educators and Educational Partners
Thursday, June 16, 2022 | 9:00 am – 4:00 pm CST
Friday, June 17, 2022 | 9:00 am – 2:00 pm CST
Embassy Suites | 1040 P Street | Lincoln, NE 68508
We all know that education is extremely complex and has no quick fix, so a mindset and capacity to identify, define, and work to solve challenges is crucial. To do so, we must seek a deeper approach to an understanding and awareness of those challenges. By starting with our own frames of reference, we can mobilize an organic approach to improvement by cultivating ownership and collective responsibility.
The S.E.E.D. Educator Effectiveness process is designed to serve as a conduit among the education community to support districts and their ability to examine their own system and analyze data to create clarity of purpose, problems, and processes. Clarity starts by defining the “user” perspective (students, teacher, principal). This approach is critical in its contribution to building an environment of collective responsibility, communication, and ultimately, collective efficacy for student success.
The 2022 Educator Effectiveness Summit is an opportunity for districts to work in tandem with ESUs, the NDE, higher education, and others to participate in developing their own clarity of purpose, problems, and processes that will directly impact their approach to continuous improvement. The summit is designed to provide a framework approach for all that will generate thoughts, ideas, questions, and solutions for a statewide model in the future.
Facilitators
Stephanie B. Wilkerson, Ph.D. President and founder of Magnolia Consulting, LLC, specializes in providing educators and policymakers with data to inform decision-making. Since 1998, she has conducted evaluation and research studies at the national, state, district, and school levels with an emphasis on making study results accessible, interpretable, and actionable so educators have user-oriented information to help improve teaching and learning. She co-authored the Teacher Data Use Survey (TDUS), published by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences (IES), which is one of the most comprehensive, research-based measures of how teachers use data currently available. Through the IES Regional Educational Laboratory contract, Dr. Wilkerson partnered with the Nebraska Department of Education from 2017 – 2021 to use the TDUS in a study of how Nebraska teachers use NSCAS and formative data. She also led the design process for developing the statewide Comprehensive Needs Assessment, which represents input from educators, ESU staff, and NDE representatives. Dr. Wilkerson has evaluated the effects of education programs on teaching and learning in varied school settings across the country through over 30 studies of science, reading, math, and English language proficiency programs published by Pearson, Inc., Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and National Geographic Learning, to name a few. Dr. Wilkerson’s work has been published in the Review of Educational Research, Educational Administration Quarterly, The Learning Professional, Afterschool Matters, The Sage Encyclopedia of Out-of-School Learning, Computers in Schools, and The Afterschool Review, among others.
Dr. Julie Downing has been an educator for 29 years. She lives in the Nebraska panhandle and works as a staff development specialist serving 21 public school districts with an educational service agency. She recently began a partnership with the Nebraska Department of Education serving as an educator effectiveness specialist in conjunction with her work at the service agency. The experience she gained as a classroom teacher, assessment and curriculum coordinator, teacher leader, and adjunct faculty in higher education has been useful in both roles. Holding degrees in elementary education, curriculum and instruction, assessment leadership, and most recently a doctorate in educational administration and supervision, Dr. Downing works as an advocate for rural education and equity.
Ryan Ricenbaw is a lifelong educator and is currently employed at the Nebraska Department of Education serving as an educational leadership specialist to support principals in Nebraska. This support is designed around educator effectiveness as defined by the Nebraska Teacher and Principal Performance Standards. Prior to employment at the NDE, he served as the high school principal for 12 years at School District #145, Waverly. In addition, Ryan had a unique opportunity to experience the non-public education world, where he served as a Chief Education Officer for a non-profit based out of Los Angeles, CA. Ryan earned his Specialist and Master’s degrees from Doane University in 2004 and 2017 respectively and will receive his Doctorate in Education in December of 2022.
Dr. Kim Synder, a classroom educator for 27 years, hails from Orchard, Nebraska. She graduated from Wayne State College and taught middle school and high school English for several years at Bradshaw, Raymond Central, and Wahoo. After she received her Reading Specialist degree from UNL in 2007, she became a reading teacher and the reading facilitator at Lincoln Northeast High school. She was the winner of Nebraska’s 2013 Christa McAuliffe Prize for Courage and Excellence in Education and earned her Doctorate of Educational Studies from UNL in 2016.
Kim serves as the Director of Statewide Teacher and Principal Support at the Nebraska Department of Education. Collaboration with teachers, administrators, and educational partners across the state to actualize the standard of effectiveness as defined in the Nebraska Teacher and Principal Performance Standards serves as the foundation of this role.
Ellie Fields is an intern for the Nebraska Department of Education this summer. Ellie graduated from Harvard High School in May of 2020 and is currently attending Colorado Christian University where she is majoring in Elementary Education and minoring in Special Education. During her senior year of high school, Ellie served on the committee tasked with revising the Nebraska Teacher and Principal Performance Standards. She enjoys her work with the NDE as she adds her voice to advocate for Nebraska’s students and educators.