John Drake
John is currently the Endowed Director of the Teaching and Instructional Leadership Learning Collaborative at the Orange County Department of Education. Previously, John was the Assistant Superintendent of Elementary Education in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Orange County, California. He has been in public education as a teacher or administrator for 29 years. Through his 29 years in education, he has served in California and Georgia, and his service includes being a middle school language arts teacher, middle and elementary school principal, director of human resources and director of curriculum and instruction. John holds a bachelor’s degree in English from California Polytechnic State University of San Luis Obispo, and a Master’s degree in Education Administration and Supervision from State University of West Georgia.
All Articles
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Professional learning lays the foundation for new curriculum
Many educators are familiar with the concept of “building the plane while flying it” because we often have to learn new curricula and instructional practices while we are implementing them with students. But what if we could do it another way? How would instruction and student learning improve if we […] -
Learning together when you're apart
Like many others around the world, we have moved our busy lives and our research-practice partnership to the planet of distal learning and remote working. While the news about the spreading of the pandemic and the dire economic consequences entered our homes, we did not want to lose what had […] -
Beyond buy-in
In 2016, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in southern California began the process of adopting a new math curriculum. Teachers and community members were dissatisfied with the existing program because it wasn’t meeting teachers’ instructional needs or students’ learning needs. Public dissatisfaction made it imperative to involve teachers and the […]
