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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Deirdre Lavery Named FCPS 2009 Principal of the Year

Deirdre Lavery, who has served as principal at Glasgow Middle School since 2004 and has been a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) employee for 22 years, has been named the FCPS 2009 Principal of the Year and is the recipient of the Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award. Lavery is one of 21 principals–representing the public school systems in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and private schools–selected by the Washington Post for the award. 

Lavery began her career as a special education teacher at Frost Middle School in 1987. She was named department chair at Frost in 1990, and in 1996 moved to Belle Willard Center to become a specialist in contract services. She worked as an assistant principal at Groveton Elementary in 1998 before being named principal at Twain Center in 2000. She was named to head Glasgow Middle in 2004.

As the principal of an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years school with high numbers of students living in poverty, families who have limited proficiency in English, and many students with disabilities, Lavery empowers her staff to take leadership roles in an effort to help all students succeed. Nominator Robert Harrison, who is the IB Middle Years coordinator at Glasgow, says that Lavery lives by two main rules: students seldom rise above the highest expectations that we hold for them, and a school never rises above the philosophy and practice of its principal. “Mrs. Lavery believes that when you teach with excellence, test scores will follow, and that even then, they are only one marker of achievement,” says Harrison.

Early in her principalship, Lavery determined how the IB Middle Years program could help organize major school reform and help improve students’ intellectual and moral character. Harrison adds, “She—and the school she is leading—are inquiring, knowledgeable, thinking, communicating, principled, open-minded, caring, risk-taking, balanced, and reflective.” These are the 10 characteristics of the IB learner profile. 

Test results from the 2007-08 school year found Glasgow “warned” in math after grade-level math tests were introduced to meet the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which nearly doubled the number of students pursuing and achieving in accelerated and advanced math. Because these students’ end-of-course high school tests do not count toward a school’s state accreditation, Glasgow’s middle school math proficiency rate dropped below 70 percent. Under Lavery’s leadership, staff members wrote grant proposals, rotated positions, completed extensive professional development, and established new supervisory procedures. “We developed what our state oversight team deemed the best response and action plan they had ever seen. Although our intervention team leader said it could not be done, in just a year we were again fully accredited,” explains Harrison.

“Gone are the days when the principal alone…can manage the complex functions of management and administration in academics, logistics, personnel, planning, climate, community relations, and finance,” write members of the Glasgow instructional leadership team. “We are fortunate that our principal is carefully developing with us a system to identify, empower, and utilize teacher leadership to build an effective school community.”

Glasgow’s teacher leadership team praises Lavery for competently balancing the needs of competing demands on limited resources. She is recognized for managing Glasgow while overseeing the construction of a new school building and furnishing it on a renovation budget rather than a higher new construction budget, which is available to managers opening a new school. “We didn’t believe it was possible, but last year she engineered a process by which we finished school on Thursday afternoon in one building, moved the entire instructional apparatus in one weekend, attended professional development, and began teaching the following day in a brand new school,” they say. “No one missed a beat.”

Current and former PTA officers praise her for fostering cooperation between school and community, for keeping lines of communication open, and for addressing concerns quickly and efficiently. “Middle school can be a difficult and challenging time for students and parents alike,” they state. “She has the rare ability to provide strong, solid leadership coupled with true compassion for all of her students.” PTA officers also cite Lavery for “continuing to play an active role in the classroom and never forgetting the children her decisions affect.” 

Lavery is a member of the FCPS Principal Committee, the Advanced Academic Advisory Committee, and the Middle School Principal Association. She has given numerous presentations on principal leadership, how to help students with emotional disabilities, and the IB Middle Years program. She earned her bachelor’s degree in special education at Marymount University, her master’s in education leadership from George Mason University, and her education specialist designation in special education from George Washington University. 

Also nominated for FCPS’ 2009 Principal of the Year award were Daniel Parris, principal of Rocky Run Middle School; Alice Alexander, principal of North Springfield Elementary School; Cynthia Botzin, principal of Braddock Elementary School; Christina Dickens, principal of Annandale Terrace Elementary School; and Roberto Pamas, principal of Holmes Middle School.

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