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External Partners/Experts

Information on Lead Turnaround Partners

Consultant Support and Projects

Martin Brooks Martin Brooks is executive director of the Tri-State Consortium, a group of forty-five school districts in the New York - New Jersey - Connecticut area. Previously, he was a superintendent on Long Island (NY) for sixteen years, and was also a school principal, assistant superintendent for curriculum, and deputy superintendent. He began his educational career in Community School District #8 in the South Bronx as a teacher and guidance counselor.

Dr. Brooks earned his doctoral degree in educational administration at Teachers College, Columbia University. He serves on the boards of the Long Island Children's Museum, Public Schools for Tomorrow, the Metropolitan School Study Council, the Institute for the Development of Education in the Advanced Sciences at Hofstra University, and the Long Island School Leadership Center. He also is a member of the Suburban School Superintendents. Dr. Brooks served as president of the Nassau County Council of School Superintendents in 2000-01.

Dr. Brooks has written extensively about education and leadership, and is co-author (with his wife, Jacqueline Grennon Brooks) of one of ASCD's best-selling books, In Search of Understanding: The Case for Constructivist Classrooms. He has also presented at numerous local, state, national and international conferences.

Ronald Ferguson Ronald Ferguson, Director of the Achievement Gap Initiative and Faculty Co-Chair, Senior Lecturer in Education and Public Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the Harvard Kennedy School. He is also an economist and Senior Research Associate at the Malcolm Wiener Center for Social Policy. He has taught at Harvard since 1983, focusing on education and economic development. His research and writing for the past decade have focused on racial achievement gaps, appearing in a variety of publications. His most recent book is Toward Excellence with Equity: An emerging vision for closing the achievement gap, published by Harvard Education Press. He is the creator of the Tripod Project for School Improvement and also the faculty co-chair and director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard University. Ferguson earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and PhD from MIT, both in economics. He is the father of two and very happily married to Helen Mont-Ferguson.

Bena Kallick Bena Kallick, Ph.D is a private consultant providing services to school districts, state departments of education, professional organizations, and public agencies throughout the United States and abroad. Kallick received her doctorate in educational evaluation at Union Graduate School. Her areas of focus include group dynamics, creative and critical thinking, and alternative assessment strategies for the classroom. Some of her written work includes: Assessment in the Learning Organization (ASCD, 1998) , the Habits of Mind series (ASCD, 2000), Strategies for Self-Directed Learning (Corwin Press, 2004) , Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind (ASCD, 2008), Habits of Mind Across the Curriculum (ASCD, 2009) (all co-authored with Arthur Costa), and Using Curriculum Mapping and Assessment to Improve Student Learning (Corwin Press, 2009, co-authored with Jeff Colosimo). Her works have been translated into Dutch, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, and Arabic.

Formerly a Teachers' Center director, Kallick also created a children's museum based on problem solving and invention. She was the coordinator of a high school alternative designed for at-risk students. She is co-founder of Performance Pathways, a company dedicated to providing easy to use software for curriculum mapping and assessment tracking and reporting, an integrated suite. She is presently a strategic advisor for SunGard Public Sector K-12 on behalf of Performance Plus, a transformational new product based on the work of Performance Pathways. She is known for her practical approach to making curriculum mapping and assessment a catalyst for improving teaching and learning.

Her work with Dr. Art Costa has led to the development of the Institute for Habits of Mind (www.instituteforhabitsofmind.com), an international institute that is dedicated to transforming schools into places where thinking and Habits of Mind are taught, practiced, valued and have become infused into the culture of the school and community. The Institute provides services and products to support bringing the Habits of Mind into the culture of schools and the communities they serve.

She and Art Costa have just completed an online course for EduPlanet, a company that is dedicated to Professional Development for Educators using the most contemporary tools and thinking to be successful engaging students as 21st century learners. .

Kallick's teaching appointments have included Yale University School of Organization and Management, University of Massachusetts Center for Creative and Critical Thinking, and Union Graduate School. She was formerly on the Board of the Apple Foundation, the Board of Jobs for the Future and the Board for Learning Effects and Weston Woods Institute. She presently serves on the Board of Communities for Learning.