Susan Pimentel Collaborator
Susan has spearheaded standards-based education reform initiatives throughout the country for nearly 30 years. As senior policy consultant to the America Diploma Project, Susan has provided research, technical assistance and policy support to Achieve since the project’s inception. She also has served as a lead content developer, coach and trainer in guiding two multistate adult education reform initiatives under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Education to develop standards-based education interventions.
Susan has worked at the district and state levels with hundreds of teachers in each of the core academic disciplines to develop and implement standards, build standards-based curricula and fashion assessments to support teaching and learning. Many of the principles that guide her work are chronicled in her best-selling book, Raising the Standard: An Eight Step Action Guide for Schools and Communities. The American Federation of Teachers and the Thomas B. Fordham Institute ranked the states in which Susan has led the standards development as having among the best content standards in the country.
Earlier in her career, Susan served as senior policy advisor to Maryland Governor William Donald Schaefer and special counsel to Superintendent of Schools John Murphy in Prince George's County (the nation's 16th largest school district). Susan serves on the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) that oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). She serves on the Assessment Development Committee that approves the content of the NAEP frameworks and NAEP assessment items. Susan holds a J.D. and a B.S. in early childhood education, both from Cornell University.