Lucy West

Lucy West served New York City Public Schools as the Deputy Superintendent of Region 9 in New York City, a Region serving close to 200 schools, 80 of which are high schools. Prior to this, she served as the Director of Mathematics for the esteemed Community School District 2, a district known nationally for its innovative and rigorous focus on instructional improvement. She began her career as a classroom teacher and went on to become a mentor teacher, teacher supervisor with a Columbia University Professional Development School, instructor within Bank Street College, curriculum developer, Assistant Principal of PS 234, one of NYC’s most successful and acclaimed schools. In October, 2002, she began her company, Metamorphosis: Teaching Learning Communities, Inc. dedicated to helping districts design and enact effective professional learning initiatives that result in increased student achievement through improved instruction and the development of pedagogical content knowledge.

Ms. West’s particular expertise is effective mathematics instruction and the thoughtful approaches to professional development that foster and sustain it. Her visionary ideas coupled with the experience of successfully implementing them have earned her recognition and professional partnerships beyond New York City. In 1995, she was one of the 20 educators from districts selected nationwide to participate in the creation of the Institute for Learning at the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh, a collaboration of academic researchers and expert practitioners co-constructing models of instruction and learning that supported high standards for all children. The Institute for Learning now involves 30 districts across the country and works with hundreds of educators every year. Ms. West’s book, CONTENT-FOCUSED COACHING: TRANSFORMING MATHEMATICS LESSONS, is a result of the collaboration between Community School District 2 and the Institute for Learning.

High quality professional development has been a continuing focus for Ms. West. In 1998, she became the principal investigator in a National Science Foundation Teacher Enhancement Grant: RECONCEPTUALIZING MATHEMATICS EDUCATION THROUGH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, and is currently studying and developing the concept of coaching as a professional development practice in diverse settings from Bismarck to Baltimore. Under the auspices of the National Research Council, she is a contributing author to the 2000 publication, Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics and Technology: New Practices for a New Millennium.

In 2000, Ms. West was one of a select group of mathematics educators sponsored by the National Research Foundation to attend a special session of the International Conference on Mathematics Education in Japan. At this conference 20 of Japan’s most esteemed educators met with 20 of their US counterparts for a week discussing and observing lesson study and professional development. This spurred Ms. West’s collaboration with Teacher’s College, Clea Fernandez and Mokoto Yashida in explorations in lesson study in K-12 in math, science and literacy. Ms. West’s experiments in combining lesson study with coaching have resulted in remarkable progress in the development of coaches and teacher leaders in several districts across the country.

Since 1993, she has been an instructor for the Math Solutions series of professional development courses for Marilyn Burns Education Associates. Ms. West has worked with Marilyn Burns (one of the foremost math educators in the nation for 30 years) in creating and teaching a range of courses for teachers that support them in shifting to instructional methods that deepen mathematical thinking and understanding.

Ms. West has presented numerous workshops for national groups such as ASCD, NSDC, NCTM and NCSM and internationally at the EARLI conference. She has designed systemic and sustainable professional development for teachers, coaches and administrators as a consultant for a number of national organizations and school districts across the country, including but not limited to the Coalition for Essential Schools, The Harvard Institute for School Leadership, American Federation of Teachers, and the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching, Teachers College (Columbia University), El Paso, Bismarck, San Diego, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. Ms. West’s projects include designing and teaching mathematics courses for New Leaders for New Schools, a national organization dedicated to the development of a cadre of principals prepared to lead our schools in an ever changing more demanding world.