Author: Barbara Phillips

Daniel R. Tomal is a Distinguished Professor of Leadership at Concordia University Chicago teaching educational leadership. He is a consultant and an author of sixteen books such as Action Research for Educator, Challenging Students to Learn, Resource Management for School Administrators (with Craig Schilling), Managing Human Resource and Collective Bargaining (with Craig Schilling) and Leading School Change: Maximizing resources for school improvement (with Craig Schilling and Margaret Trybus) by Rowman & Littlefield Education, and has made guest appearance on many national radio and television shows. Robert K. Wilhite, Ed D, is professor and the Department Chair for Leadership at Concordia University Chicago. He teaches educational law, instructional leadership, supervisory practices, and school evaluation change processes. He is a former elementary, middle school, and high school principal, associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and superintendent of schools. He has most recently published articles on homeless students and adaptive leadership, “Chicago HOPES: Eliminating Educational Roadblocks for Homeless Students, “American School Board Journal, May 2011, “Applying Adaptive Leadership to Sustain K-12 District Initiatives and Challenges, ” International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, Vol. 5 No. 3, 2010. He is a coauthor of Teacher Leadership (with Dan Tomal and Craig Schilling) by Roman & Littlefield Education. He has facilitated training programs for the Midwest Principal Center and consulted with school districts across northern Illinois. He currently serves on the Illinois Licensure Board, Principal Review Panel, evaluating the design of university principal preparation programs in Illinois. Barbara J. Phillips is professor and Program Leader in the Department of Leadership at Concordia University Chicago. She teaches courses in school change, data-driven decision making, supervision and evaluation, teacher-leadership, and curriculum. She is a consultant to school districts and has been a speaker at workshops and conferences throughout the United States. She has been a teacher, a principal, an assistant superintendent for instruction, and has served as the Director of the School of Education at North Park University in Chicago. She has received community, state, and federal grants for teacher education improvement. Paul A. Sims is associate professor and Program Leader in the Department of Leadership at Concordia University Chicago. He teaches courses in instructional leadership and supervision at the master’s level and supervisory theory and practice and strategies of educational leadership at the doctoral level. He has served as chairperson and reader on several doctoral dissertations. He is a former high school teacher, director of student activities, dean of students and high school principal in the Chicagoland area. Nancy P. Gibson, Ph D, is President of the National ASCD Board of Directors, an international education association. She has traveled extensively with the ASCD Board of Directors and studied educational systems in the following countries: Thailand, Cambodia, Argentina, China, Canada, South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Egypt, and most recently Qatar. She is a former elementary, middle school, and high school teacher, principal, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and superintendent of schools. She is an instructional leader with expertise in supervision and improvement of schools. Dr. Gibson and Dr. Sims have developed the Gibson-Sims Framework for Effective Teaching which emphasizes individual growth and learning plans for all teachers and combines the supervision and evaluation model into one process that focuses the development of a continuous learning model.