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About the Authors

Héctor García, PhD, is currently a superintendent for a suburban unit school district in Illinois. He has been an educator for more than twenty years, with a background as a teacher, high school principal, and district administrator in a variety of school settings. Héctor’s educational experiences range from working in a predominantly low-income school to working in some of the most affluent and high-performing schools, including Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois.

Héctor’s strong belief in developing schools with a culture of high expectations and collaboration has resulted in marked improvement in various schools. He has also worked with educational leaders to make curricula more relevant to minority students as well as countless teachers to raise the academic achievement for all students at both the local and national level. Héctor has presented throughout the United States on topics ranging from PLC implementation to developing a more effective school culture. In recent years, he has been a part of numerous PLC Institutes around the country and has taught graduate courses for three Chicago-area universities.

Héctor received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a master’s degree in education from Northern Illinois University, and a doctorate in education leadership and policy studies from Loyola University.

Katherine McCluskey is currently the director of bilingual, foreign language, and English as a second language (ESL) programming for a suburban school district in Illinois that serves grades preK to 8. As a former teacher in K–12 settings, Katherine has worked with students of diverse socioeconomic status in districts of various sizes. She has also trained, coached, and led staff with a wide range of professional experience. As a district administrator, she has led such key initiatives as a K–8 dual language program, foreign language programming for elementary school, and ESL and bilingual programming for preschool through twelfth grade. She has also led districtwide curriculum writing efforts, developed response to intervention protocols, and established professional learning communities in preK–12 settings that have resulted in academic success for students. Katherine has presented at local and state conferences, contributed to the All Things PLC site, published research with the Center for Applied Linguistics, and been recognized for her work with English learner students. Katherine’s passion and commitment to student achievement, in particular the achievement of minority and low-income students, has contributed to her ability to establish highly effective and collaborative cultures focused on the success of all students. Katherine earned a bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University and received her master’s degree in administration from Governor’s State University. She is currently completing her doctoral work in educational leadership at Aurora University.

Shelley Taylor is a director at the Consortium for Educational Change (CEC) in Illinois, a nonprofit organization that works with teachers, school and district administrators, school boards, and unions to improve student learning and achievement. As the Core Service Director for Teacher Effectiveness, Shelley supports CEC’s work through design, development and consulting training around teacher evaluation, new teacher induction and mentoring, and co-teaching and inclusion practices. Shelley supports CEC member and nonmember school districts with facilitation and professional development training. Recently, Shelley was a remediation specialist assisting districts with the Growth Through Learning teacher evaluation performance training required for prequalification to meet the Performance Evaluation Reform Act (PERA) mandates as a qualified professional practice evaluator in Illinois.

Shelley has sixteen years of diverse experience in K–12 public schools as a teacher, instructional coach, and district administrator. In these roles, she was successful in creating and implementing staff development and mentoring in the areas of RTI, PLCs, instructional coaching, common assessments, balanced literacy, and co-teaching. She specifically focused on developing long-term solutions for growth and improvement in these areas. Working to improve the capacity of teachers and school leaders, Shelley has designed tools for implementing the Danielson Framework for Teaching that help support teacher growth and student success. Shelley also has extensive experience in managing grants including the NCLB Consolidated Federal grant.

Shelley received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from National-Louis University and a master’s degree in teaching from the University of St. Mary. She also holds an educational leadership endorsement from DePaul University and is a National Board Certified Teacher and Exceptional Needs Specialist for ages birth to young adult.

To book Héctor García, Katherine McCluskey, or Shelley Taylor for professional development, contact pd@solution-tree.com.