About the Authors

Amitra Schwols serves as a consultant at Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL). As an analyst at McREL, she has reviewed, revised, and developed standards documents for many districts, state agencies, and organizations. She has also reviewed instructional materials, created lesson plans, and conducted research on a wide variety of education topics. Ms. Schwols's work with the Common Core State Standards includes developing gap analysis, crosswalk, and transition documents, as well as facilitating implementation with groups of teacher leaders. She was a consulting state content expert for mathematics during the development of the Common Core standards and a state consultant to the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) consortium. A former classroom teacher at the secondary grades and a Navy veteran, Ms. Schwols holds a BS in science with an emphasis in physics and mathematics and a minor in English from Colorado State University.

Kathleen Dempsey is a principal consultant with McREL. In this role, Ms. Dempsey works to provide services, strategies, and materials to support improvement in mathematics education, curriculum development, formative assessment, and integration of instructional technology. Additionally, Ms. Dempsey currently serves as a co-principal investigator for two mathematics studies funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Ms. Dempsey holds an MEd in educational supervision from the College of William and Mary, a BS in elementary education from Old Dominion University, and endorsements in mathematics—Algebra I, gifted education, and middle school education. Before coming to McREL, Ms. Dempsey served as the secondary mathematics coordinator for Virginia Beach City Public Schools in Virginia Beach, Virginia.