In 1996, Kathy Berry began working with John Simmons in what has developed into today’s SLI team after having taught first grade with Reading Recovery and hands-on lab science to all grade levels from 1990-1996 at James Weldon Johnson School in Chicago’s Lawndale community. Among her accomplishments at Johnson, Kathy co-designed a new lesson plan book, facilitated the assessment team, and led staff development in alternative assessments. During that time, she also served as a moderator in the Dialogue Process for looking at student work as a tool for teachers, as part of the Chicago Learning Collaborative, a three-school network that served as a pilot project for what has become SLI’s Scaling Up Best Practice program.

After leaving full-time Chicago Public Schools teaching at the end of the 1996 school year, Kathy joined what is now the SLI team, training new moderators and helping develop a training video for the Dialogue Process. She then went on to facilitate the implementation of protocols for using the Looking at Student Work model in over 15 schools across Chicago. Kathy helped create and lead the Learning & Sharing Connection and served as staff development advisor for this additional network of three Chicago Public Schools schools which helped further refine SLI’s current Scaling Up program. She has also participated in a national collaborative for Looking at Student Work since its formation in 1998 at the initiative of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform and Project Zero at Harvard University.

In 2002, Kathy became SLI’s Director of Professional Development, where she leads all teacher-centered activities. She also continues in facilitating and helping design a variety of workshops, coaching sessions, and other training opportunities, examples of which include: Peer Coaching, Teacher Facilitator Training, Differentiated Instruction, and Teaching Strategies for Success.

Kathy is a certified teacher with a B.A. in Elementary Education from North Central College and a M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction from National Louis University. Her continuing education has included: Sopris West: Closing the Achievement Gap-2004, The Project Zero Classroom 2003: Views on Understanding, and MCREL: Teaching Reading in the Content Areas-2002.