Introducing a Toolkit for Improving Instructional System Coherence

Julia H. Kaufman

Julia Kaufman is a senior policy researcher who codirects the American Educator Panels. Her research focuses on how states and school systems can support high-quality instruction and student learning, as well as methods for measuring educator perceptions and instruction. She has led studies on topics ranging from how states can encourage adoption and use of standards-aligned curriculum materials to implementation and costs of pipelines for preparing, hiring and supporting school principals and teachers. She holds a Ph.D. in international education from New York University and an M.A. in teaching from the University of Pittsburgh.

Elaine Lin Wang

Elaine Lin Wang (she/her) is a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Her primary research interest concerns K–12 instruction, especially with a focus on literacy/English Language Arts (ELA). Wang is a co-PI on a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation–funded study of characteristics of coherent instructional systems that support student success in ELA. Wang also researches the development of school leaders. She specializes in using mixed methods to examine relationships between instruction and student learning outcomes, and to understand factors that facilitate or pose challenges for policy or program implementation. Wang received her Ph.D. in the learning sciences and policy program, with a minor in research methodology, from the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to pursuing her graduate studies, Wang taught high school English for nine years.

Dana Talley

Dana Talley currently serves as the chief academic officer for the Lincoln Parish School District. Prior to returning to Lincoln Parish, she worked for the Louisiana Department of Education for 15 years serving as a network leader, deputy network leader, network coach, and distinguished educator. Her primary role as network leader was supporting 34 parish superintendents, district leaders, and principals in the implementation of high-quality curriculum and aligned professional learning. Talley began her professional career as a high school math teacher and debate coach. She received an M.S. in curriculum and instruction and B.S. in education from Louisiana Tech University.

Emily Howell

Emily Howell serves as the English Language Arts (ELA) facilitator for Lincoln Parish Schools in Ruston, Louisiana, overseeing curriculum and instruction for ELA in grades 3–12, and she also continues to teach in the classroom part-time. Over the past decade, Howell has both developed and presented ELA content for the Arkansas Advanced Initiative for Math and Science, Applied Practice, Propel, Laying the Foundation, the National Math and Science Initiative, and the Louisiana Department of Education. She has developed curriculum for both LearnZillion and the Louisiana Department of Education. She was the 2012 Louisiana High School Teacher of the Year.