Dr. Amy Galloway Swann, currently the Principal of the nationally recognized Bates Middle School in Danville, KY will be joining the Matchbook Learning Team as our Chief Learning Officer.  Dr. Swann will join the team full-time in Atlanta effective June 1, 2014.  Dr. Swann led Bates' nationally recognized approach to project based learning in a blended school context and seeks to bring that vision and leadership to Matchbook Learning and its schools.  Dr. Swann participated in an interview regarding her upcoming role with Matchbook Learning.

What would you describe as the biggest challenge of being our Chief Learning Officer?
The biggest challenge of being Matchbook Learning’s Chief Learning Officer is balancing and blending innovative new approaches with research based best practices in order to ensure that the Matchbook Learning model always centers around what’s best for kids.

What are your goals for this next year?
The goals that I have for this next year include blending project based learning, design thinking, and increased collaborative practices into the current Matchbook Learning model in order to take it to the next level instructionally.

What are the keys to accomplishing a school turnaround?

The strong correlation between teacher quality and student achievement has been documented in numerous studies which is why at the heart of Matchbook Learning’s plan for turning schools around with student centered learning is coaching teachers along a continuum of best practices.

What most attracted you to this position?

I was most attracted to the position at Matchbook Learning because of the mission to turn around bottom 5% schools through improving teacher quality and student centered learning.  I believe that all students deserve a high quality education designed to teach them not only the content but also the skills necessary to be successful global citizens throughout their lives.  I saw the amazing transformation of a school through increasing teacher capacity and student voice and choice through project based learning and a 21st century skill focus on teaching the whole child while I was the principal at Bate Middle.  I also saw the amazing results and student centered practices going on in Matchbook Learning schools when I visited Burns in Detroit after only a few months as a Matchbook school.  Improving education for students and turning around schools has always been a passion of mine.  After seeing these two successful models and practices separately, when I was offered the opportunity to combine them into one incredibly powerful model that could improve the experiences and lives of students in bottom 5% schools across the nation, well, that spoke directly to my heart.

How would you describe your most unique accomplishment to date?

Helping Bate Middle School go from being a state watch list school to one of the nation’s first Partnership for 21st Century Skills Exemplar schools.

Why should gifted educators -- principals and teachers -- consider working for a Matchbook school?

I think that every innovative, gifted, and passion driven educator, principal, and teacher should want the challenge of working in a Matchbook school. By joining a Matchbook school they are guaranteed to be supported, challenged, and pushed to become the best educator they can be while truly changing and improving student lives.  Educators won’t find the combination of coaching supports that Matchbook offers coupled with some of the most innovative student centered instructional practices anywhere else.  I would challenge educators who went into the profession because they truly want to make a difference in the lives of children and in our nation’s future to come learn and grow with us.  We will support, inspire, and help educators from all levels and years of experience to learn, to grow, to achieve at higher levels, and to reach and teach the whole child.

What are your expectations a year from now?  How will you be different?

It is my expectation that a year from now I will have been challenged and will have achieved many things that I have yet to even dream of.  I also expect that I will have learned more than I will ever be able to express.  I have the additional expectation that I will have been inspired by the ideas of the Matchbook team members, by the students, the schools’ accomplishments, and by all of those I will have the good fortune of meeting and collaborating with.  Yes, I expect this to be a year full of growing, learning, taking on challenges, and being inspired.  I am extremely excited about the upcoming year and about the future of Matchbook Learning.