DreamBox Learning Advisory Board
Dr. Francis (Skip) Fennell
Professor of Education, McDaniel College
Past President, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
Dr. Francis (Skip) Fennell is Professor of Education at McDaniel College, and is widely published with research, articles, and textbooks related to elementary and middle-grade mathematics education. He is one of the writers of the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) and of the Curriculum Focal Points for PreK-8 (NCTM, 2006). Dr. Fennell was also a member of the National Math Advisory Panel appointed by President Bush. He currently directs the Elementary Mathematics Specialists and Teacher Leaders Project supported by the Brookhill Foundation and the Cisco Learning Institute.
Dr. Fennell has experience as a classroom teacher, a principal, and a supervisor of instruction. The immediate Past-President of NCTM, he has also served as a member of their Board of Directors, as President of the Research Council for Mathematics Learning and President of the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (AMTE). Dr. Fennell has received numerous honors and awards, including Maryland’s Outstanding Mathematics Educator, McDaniel College’s Professor of the Year, the CASE - Carnegie Foundation Professor of the Year for the state of Maryland, and the Glenn Gilbert Award for Leadership from the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics (NCSM). He has also has been the principal investigator on grants from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Education, the Maryland Higher Education Commission, and the ExxonMobil Foundation. He is an author for Scott Foresman - Addison Wesley enVisionMATH© 2009.
Dr. Catherine Twomey Fosnot
Professor of Childhood Education at the City College of New York
Director of Mathematics in the City
Dr. Fosnot is Professor Emeritus of Childhood Education at the City College of New York and at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is the Founding Director of Mathematics in the City (www.mitcccny.org), an internationally recognized center for professional development located at CCNY and funded by the National Science Foundation.
Dr. Fosnot is a well-known author and speaker on mathematics education, and has most recently authored the Contexts for Learning Mathematics series (K-6) and the Young Mathematicians at Work series (Pk-8) with the accompanying professional development materials funded by the National Science Foundation. Two of her books were awarded the “significant contribution” award from the American Educational Research Association and in 2005 she was the recipient of the Teacher of the Year award from CCNY. Early in her career she received the Young Scholar Award from the Association for Educational Communication and Technology for her writing on the topic of technology and learning.
Dr. Margaret Jorgensen
Managing Director at Battelle for Kids
For more than 30 years, Dr. Jorgensen has been a leading authority on assessment for K-12 education. As managing director at Battelle for Kids, a non-profit enterprise focusing on educational reform, she oversees the organization’s communications and research on value-added and growth models for effective instructional practice; and research on achievement measures and non-cognitive measures.
Previously she was CEO of Measure2Learn, LLC, consulting with Teach for America (supporting development of assessment quality strategy); Data Recognition Corporation (online K-12 formative and summative assessment initiatives); Pearson VUE- NCLEX project; SAM Learning; and Princeton Review’s K-12 division, now Core K12 Education.
Dr. Jorgensen is a former Senior Vice President for Product Research and Innovation at Harcourt Assessment. She is also on the Board of the Association of Test Publishers. Dr. Jorgensen earned her Ph.D. in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistical Analysis from the University of Chicago and holds a Masters of Science in School Psychology. She is the author of two books on innovative assessment and has developed hundreds of criterion-referenced, standards-based, and norm-referenced tests for K-12.
Jeff Piontek, PhD
Curriculum and Assessment President, Educational Consulting Services, LLC
Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). He has worked with many at-risk school districts nationally as a consultant on affecting educational change and reform. Jeff started out as a Science teacher in the South Bronx, NYC and worked his way up to the Director of Instructional and Informational Technology in NYC. Jeff’s book, Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts, Oh, My!: Electronic Media in the Classroom is in its second printing and his newest book continues his work on STEM education and 21st Century Skills. Jeff sits on many national boards and was recently appointed to the initial National Science Teachers Association Technology Advisory Board and was appointed to the State of Hawaii Economic Development Workforce Council (WDC) by the Governor. In his role on the WDC he oversees Digital Media, Software Development and the Film Industry for the state. Jeff opened Hawaii Technology Academy and as the Head of School helped it grow (in its fourth year) the largest charter school in the state. The school has received national recognition for its creative and innovative approach to implementing 21st century skills in education.
Jeff is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). He has worked with U.S. school districts nationally on affecting educational change and reform. Jeff is a former Director of Instructional and Informational Technology for the NYC Department of Education and State Science Specialist for the Hawaii Department of Education. Jeff is an educational innovator and has been the keynote for many conferences nationally and internationally, working in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and China. His expertise in educational technology includes design thinking, digital storytelling, mobile learning, the common core and the design of innovative spaces for learning. He has received many accolades including an award for “Innovation in the Economy by an Individual” from the Governor of the State of Hawaii for his STEM education work.
