LM Feb 2024

Education Elevat g

We continue our series highlighting tremendous educators across Illinois who have given their time and energy to ele vating the superintendency and public education as a whole. Each month, we will feature two educators who are going the extra mile and truly making a difference beyond their school districts and local communities. While we are aware of many of the contributions administrators are making, we are open to any suggestions for some one to feature next month. To make a recommendation, contact Jason Nevel, IASA Director of Communications, at jnevel@iasaedu.org or by calling 217–753–2213.

Margo Empen Dixon USD #170

Dr. Brian Ganan La Grange SD #105

Who: Margo Empen, superintendent What: Instilled a culture of innovation; Greenlighted drone soccer; Named Outstanding Administrator Award by Illinois Music Association; Expanded career and technical education opportunities; Invested in new math, reading and science curricula Where: Dixon USD #170, Northwest

Who: Dr. Brian Ganan, superintendent What: Researched correlation between Spanish oral reading fluency and success on English assessments; Implemented Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) model; Collaborated with leaders of feeder districts to improve student success; Member of West Suburban Consortium for Academic Excellence; Promoted

When: Superintendent of Dixon USD #170 since 2014 Why: At Dixon USD #170, Margo Empen instills in her staff that no idea is a crazy idea, and encourages and promotes out-of-the-box thinking. “I encourage everyone in the district to think outside the box,” Empen said. “It’s incredibly important to think about ideas that are going to ignite and inspire life-long learners and cultivate skills that will help our students succeed at the next level, whether that be college, a career or military service.” At Dixon USD #170, Empen greenlighted an innovative initiative to promote students STEM skills—drone soccer. The new-age activity is played with the pilot controlling a drone soccer ball, flying through the air in a cage with a striker and a defender each vying to either score or play

student voice; Adopted the Responsive Classroom Model; Integrated Strategic Planning into decision-making. Where: La Grange SD #105, Cook West When: Superintendent of La Grange SD #105 since 2020; Superintendent of Komarek SD #94 from 2015–2020 Why: How can a school district use native language fluency to help diagnose when English Language Learner students can comprehend and demonstrate their academic knowledge on a high-stakes English Language Arts state assessment? In 2015, Dr. Ganan set out to answer that question by studying the correlation between Spanish oral reading fluency and success in high stakes English language state tests. “I felt like we were stuck in a debate about how much of the issue was the language barrier versus a student’s academic knowledge,” Dr. Ganan said. “The idea was to

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