09.11.06

September 11, 2006
FORMER STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JOINS VCU
Two former state superintendents team to improve schools nationwide

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education
(804) 827-2415
mdfronti@vcu.edu

Dr. Jo Lynne DeMary

RICHMOND, Va. (Sept. 11, 2006) - Former Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Jo Lynne DeMary, Ed.D. is now leading a nationwide effort to strengthen K-12 education in her new role at Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Education.

“I want to bridge the gap between academic research on K-12 education and school and classroom practices,” said Dr. DeMary. “There is no better place to do that than at VCU.”

As director of the Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute’s (CEPI) Center for School Improvement, Dr. DeMary will partner with local, state, and national education officials to improve leadership, instruction, and student achievement through research and best practices.

Dr. DeMary will draw on her success and experience as state superintendent in designing and implementing Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) as she carries out the mission of the new center. When Dr. DeMary retired as state superintendent at the end of 2005, 92 percent of Virginia’s schools were meeting SOL standards and more than 80 percent were meeting the objectives of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“The Center for School Improvement will be a vehicle for sharing the lessons learned here in Virginia through our own standards-based reform as well as the implementation of No Child Left Behind,” said Dr. DeMary. “Through the work of the Center for School Improvement, schools across the nation will benefit from Virginia’s experience in developing a tough but reasonable accountability program supported by rich, content-based standards, quality online assessments, robust data systems to drive instruction, and relevant professional development for educators.”

Dr. DeMary will work with Dr. Bill Bosher, the institute’s executive director and her predecessor as state superintendent.

“Dr. DeMary is one of the strongest instructional state superintendents who has ever lead Virginia’s schools,” said Dr. Bosher. “We will use the network of relationships that she has developed with state and national organizations to help us strengthen the educational policy and technical assistance services provided by CEPI.”

In her new position, Dr. DeMary will work with schools to design and implement improvement plans and processes; disseminate current research findings and promising practices; and provide professional development, technical assistance, and coaching. She will also teach graduate courses in educational leadership and work with the VCU Center for Public Policy.

Dr. DeMary has been a career educator for more than 38 years. In 2000, she was appointed by Republican Gov. James S. Gilmore III as the first woman superintendent of public instruction in Virginia after serving six months as acting superintendent. She was reappointed to a full, four-year term by Democratic Gov. Mark R. Warner on April 2, 2002. Dr. DeMary retired Jan. 1, 2006.

She received her doctorate in Educational Planning and Administration from The College of William & Mary, and her master’s degree in Special Education from the VCU School of Education.

She has been a teacher in Richmond, Fairfax County, and Henrico County; and an assistant principal, principal, elementary school supervisor, director of special education, and assistant superintendent of instruction in Henrico County.

Dr. DeMary serves on the Broad Prize for Urban Education Review Board, which awards an annual $1 million prize to honor outstanding urban districts.  She is president of the VCU Alumni Association. In the fall of 2005, Dr. DeMary participated in a United States Leadership Delegation to China.

Dr. DeMary has received numerous awards and recognitions. Most recently, she was named the 2006 Outstanding Woman in Education by the YWCA of Richmond.

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About the VCU Commonwealth Educational Policy Institute (CEPI): CEPI supports the development and implementation of research-based comprehensive educational public policy for the improvement of elementary and secondary education through research, policy analysis, service to school divisions and support services for local, state, and national educational policy-makers. CEPI is sponsored and governed jointly by VCU’s School of Education and the VCU Center for Public Policy.

About VCU and the VCU Medical Center:  Located on two downtown campuses in Richmond, Va., Virginia Commonwealth University ranks among the top 100 universities in the country in sponsored research and enrolls 30,000 students in more than 180 certificate, undergraduate, graduate, professional and doctoral programs in the arts, sciences and humanities in 15 schools and one college. Sixty of the university’s programs are unique in Virginia, and 20 graduate and professional programs have been ranked by U.S. News & World Report as among the best of their kind. MCV Hospitals, clinics and the health sciences schools of Virginia Commonwealth University compose the VCU Medical Center, one of the leading academic medical centers in the country. For more, see www.vcu.edu.

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