Springfield School District Student Achievement Leader Rob Hess received the 2008 OACOA Achievement of Excellence Award last week.  Hess was honored by his colleagues at the OASE/OACOA Conference in Salishan. 

Hess has taken the lead in Springfield to organize small learning communities, where staff members read selected books and discuss how they can grow as leaders.  He has authored three books, one of which, Priority Leadership: Generating School and District Improvement Through Systemic Change, was read by Springfield leaders last year.

He also founded breakthroughschools.org a grass roots organization dedicated to helping schools and districts achieve breakthrough school improvement results.  Hess teaches online courses on teacher leadership at Oregon State University and recently presented at the National Staff Development Council conference.

In Springfield, Hess created an innovative way to report progress to their school board by coordinating a School Improvement Science Fair.  Each school created a school improvement panel that showcased data including the results their school experienced, actions taken to achieve those results, what was learned and next steps.  The panels were displayed and an administrator and teacher leader from each school was on hand to discuss their panels with Board members.

According to Springfield Superintendent Nancy Golden, “everything he touches turns to gold. He possesses an amazing ability to step up to the plate and provide exceptional outcomes to each and every project he leads.”

In his current position, Hess's responsibilities include supporting and leading the organization to increase student achievement.  Hess, who previously worked as an elementary and middle school principal in Lebanon School District, has served in Springfield for three years. He serves as the administrator in charge of overseeing the implementation of a new Springfield school, The Academy of Arts and Academics (A3). The school is set up in a teacher-leader model with no administrator on site.  It’s been such a success that employers for Education Excellence views the school as a model and has granted additional resources for next year.