Keynote
Leadership Rising with Superintendent of Rockdale County Public Schools
Dr. Terry Oatts
Beginning his 30th year in education, Dr. Terry Oatts is in his sixth year as Superintendent of Rockdale County Public Schools. Prior to his tenure as Superintendent, he served as Asst. Superintendent of Student Achievement in Fayette County Public Schools, where he worked since 2014. During his tenure in Fayette County, he led the district’s development of a new 5-Year Strategic Plan and the development of his district’s Strategic Waiver application which was approved by the State Board of Education. Additionally, as a credentialed TKES/LKES Trainer, he facilitated Fayette’s transition to the Teacher Leader Effectiveness evaluation system. During his Fayette County tenure, the graduation rate exceeded 90% and the district’s CCRPI increased significantly.
Dr. Oatts, a 2016 graduate of the American Association of School Administrators’ (AASA) inaugural cohort of the National Aspiring Superintendents Academy and a participant in Harvard Graduate School of Education’s 2017 National Institute for Urban School Leaders previously served on the ESSA (Every Student Succeeds Act) National Advisory Board. He is also a 2014 graduate of the Georgia School Superintendents Association’s (GSSA) District Office Professional Development Program, and a 2019 graduate of GSSA’s 13th Cohort of the Superintendent Professional Development Program (SPDP). He previously served as District 12 Director for the Georgia Association of Curriculum and Instructional Supervisors (GACIS) having represented the eight Griffin RESA districts, and is currently serving a second term on the Georgia Cognia (formerly AdvancED) State Advisory Committee. Dr. Oatts currently serves on numerous advisory committees including the GSBA Superintendents’ Advisory Council, and he serves as the GSSA Legislative Committee Representative for Metro RESA.
Prior to his district office tenure, Dr. Oatts spent nearly a decade as a Title I elementary school Principal, middle school Principal, and high school Principal in neighboring Henry County. During this time, he received many accolades including his elementary school being named a Distinguished Title I School, establishing the first high school credit-bearing world language middle grades program, increasing his graduation rate by nearly 10 points in two years, and obtaining U.S. News & World Report Best High Schools (Bronze) and Washington Post Most Challenging High Schools recognition. Prior to his principal tenure, Dr. Oatts spent nearly seven years as a high school assistant principal in Glynn and Gwinnett Counties at a non-Title and Title I high school respectively. Prior to his administrative tenure, Dr. Oatts spent five years as an elementary special education teacher-assistant, middle school counselor, and Title I elementary school counselor. From 1997-2018, he taught graduate studies within the College of Education at institutions of higher learning across the state including his alma mater Georgia Southern University, along with Troy, Argosy, and Mercer universities and Piedmont College.
Dr. Oatts holds a B.S. degree in Communication Arts and three graduate degrees in education from Georgia Southern University. His doctoral degree is in Curriculum Studies with an emphasis in Educational Leadership. He has authored several publications including two books, one on the achievement gap and one on the educational philosophy of W.E.B. Du Bois. The latter research was cited in the Journal of American History in 2004. Dr. Oatts also co-authored a widely disseminated article in 1999 in the journal "Education" on the diagnostic disparities between ADHD and Conduct Disorder involving African-American adolescent males and their counterparts. Dr. Oatts is married to a middle grades administrator and they have two high school-aged children and an adult son.
Welcome, from Superintendent Dr. Terry Oatts
Dr. John Almarode, bestselling author and Associate Professor of Education
Dr. John Almarode
Dr. John Almarode is a bestselling author and an Associate Professor of Education at James Madison University. He was awarded the inaugural Sarah Miller Luck Endowed Professorship in 2015 and received an Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council for Higher Education in Virginia in 2021. Before his academic career, John started as a mathematics and science teacher in Augusta County, Virginia. As an author, John has written multiple educational books focusing on science and mathematics, and he has co-created a new framework for developing, implementing, and sustaining professional learning communities called PLC+. Dr. Almarode's work has been presented to the US Congress, the Virginia Senate, and the US Department of Education. One of his recent projects includes developing the Distance Learning Playbook for College and University Instruction in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Continuing his collaborative work with colleagues on what works best in teaching and learning, How Tutoring Works, Visible Learning in Early Childhood, and How Learning Works, all with Corwin Press, were released in 2021.
YouTube video of John Almarode speaking on the science of how we learn