Arizona Assessments Conference - Featured Speakers
2024 Arizona Assessments Conference
Keynote Speakers
Larry Ainsworth is the author or co-author of more than 20 books, including his most popular titles: Rigorous Curriculum Design; Common Formative Assessments 2.0; Prioritizing Common Core State Standards; Power Standards; “Unwrapping” Common Core State Standards; and “Unwrapping” the Standards.
Larry’s comprehensive new book series, Integrating Teaching and Learning: "Timeless Essentials” for Creating Integrated Units of Study (2024), explains and illustrates how PK-12 educators can develop quality units of study that intentionally align standards, assessments, instruction, and data analysis to positively impact student learning.
Currently an independent author-consultant, Larry served as the Executive Director of Professional Development at The Leadership and Learning Center in Englewood, Colorado, from 1999 to 2013. He traveled nationally and internationally to assist school systems in implementing best practices related to standards, assessment, curriculum, and instruction across all grades and content areas. Throughout his career as an education consultant, Larry has delivered keynote addresses and breakout sessions across North America and in Argentina and Switzerland, and regularly worked on-site and virtually to assist leaders and educators in understanding and implementing "timeless" education practices in all content areas, pre-kindergarten through grade 12.
Drawing upon 24 years of experience as an upper elementary and middle school classroom teacher in demographically diverse schools in several U.S. states, Larry brings a varied background and wide range of professional experiences to each of his presentations.
Since 2020 Larry has been presenting to educators and leaders across the U.S. a series of virtual workshops based on his Integrated Teaching and Learning System©, a dynamic unit-design framework that includes: prioritizing and aligning PreK-12 standards, “unwrapping” Essential Standards, writing Student-Learning Targets and Success Criteria, designing quality formative and summative assessments with easy-to-use Scoring Guides, identifying Learning Progressions for daily instruction, planning Quick Progress Checks to provide teachers and students with timely feedback, and creating Standards-Aligned Learning Tasks to engage all learners. If you would like more information about his Integrated Teaching and Learning System©, please visit Larry’s website at www.larryainsworth.com or contact him directly at [email protected].
Tessa Brock is a passionate, engaging, and inspiring presenter who tackles the tough topics of Organizational Culture, Communication, Reflective Practices, and Self-Care with a balance of expertise, honesty, and humor. Tessa has worked with schools through Fortune 500 organizations to enhance interpersonal interactions. Through her genuine and authentic manner, Tessa skillfully uses story to drive home key concepts that make a lasting impression. Tessa has a Master's degree, is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), and is a Certified Executive Coach. Tessa actively coaches, trains, and consults with organizations and schools to enhance relationship-based strategies used with professionals, students, and parents. She is an international speaker and national consultant.
Dr. Wendy Oliver, a highly qualified Tennessee teacher and administrator, has a diverse background in educational leadership and policy, to include teaching and leadership roles in both the urban and suburban public schools as well as the private non-secular realm. Wendy also has executive level experience in the private sector.
Subsequent to her master's degree, Dr. Oliver used her experience in change leadership to manage a grant funded, data-driven program that generated innovation and educational change in her school district. This foundation in change management coupled with her extensive knowledge of educational technology provided the opportunity to create and implement a district-wide virtual school. The success of this program led to creating and leading the State of Tennessee's grant funded online learning program, e4TN, which was a statewide consortium that included over 100 school districts. Her leadership and team's efforts at e4TN were recognized nationally with seven awards by the United States Distance Learning Association (USDLA) within five years.
Dr. Oliver has published numerous articles highlighting her experiences. Early in her career Dr. Oliver demonstrated interest in data analysis and evaluation, particularly in teacher evaluation. She was interviewed by 20/20 and published in Tennessee Educational Leadership on utilizing a framework for evaluation and professional growth, as a first-year teacher.
The natural tie of online learning and assessment led Dr. Oliver to publish work on teacher effectiveness in the online environment, such as, Investigating Whether a Value-Added Teaching Effectiveness Model Designed for Traditional Classrooms Can be Used to Measure Online Teaching Quality, and her experience in digital leadership provided the opportunity to publish in Lessons learned from virtual schools: Experiences and recommendations from the field. She also served as the guest editor of the Journal of Online Learning and Research summer of 2016, where she also published an article, "Professional Development in K-12 Online and Blended Learning: Examining Programs and Pedagogy for Effective Teacher Training." Her research afforded the opportunity to present at several national forums including AERA.
Oliver has also created Oliver's Frameworks for Blended and Online Learning and subsequently a software that allows teachers to self-assess their knowledge of pedagogy in each environment. The software has been implemented at the state and district level across the United States.
After serving as Arizona State University's Preparatory Digital Academy's Chief Learning Architect, Dr. Oliver released her first book in the Not Your Mama's Classroom series, Not Your Mama's Classroom: What You Need to Know as a Parent About Your Child's Digital Education. In 2021 she released her second book in the series: Not Your Mama's Classroom: Facilitating Engaging Student-Centered Digital Instruction.
Oliver serves on the planning committee for DLAC and is a member of the National Standards for Quality Online Learning leadership team, where she is co-leading the revision of the national online teaching standards.
Her experience in digital learning and curriculum design, paired with her expertise in assessment and evaluation, are leveraged to design an innovative, learner-centered curriculum in her role as Chief Learning Officer at FocalPoint, K12, Inc.
