American Institutes for Research

Beth Ratway is a senior technical assistance consultant in state services at AIR. She works with Great Lakes and Midwest Comprehensive Centers to assist state education agencies and intermediate school districts with implementation of the Common Core State Standards and developing innovative 21st century systems that improve academic achievement for all students. Ratway leads workshops and gives presentations to state education leaders, teachers and community and business leaders on developing a new vision for education that prepares students for 21st century colleges, careers and citizenship; on district and school improvement, on professional development, high school reform, civic engagement, financial literacy, and numerous specific topics on implementing education reform.

Ratway has 16 years of experience in public school education and teaches undergraduate social studies methods courses. She has worked in middle and high schools as a social studies teacher, teacher consultant, and district level professional development coordinator. She served as a consultant at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and at the district and school level for curriculum development, problem solving, and critical thinking, assessment design, action planning, effective technology use, and designing and implementing a 21st century professional development cycle. Her most notable accomplishments at the Wisconsin DPI were developing a 21st century framework for social studies education; implementing 21st century district learning plans; creating and facilitating a task force to develop innovative high school systems statewide; facilitating the development of K–12 standards for personal financial literacy and writing a curriculum planning guide for implementing them; developing a website to support high school reform; and developing a common framework for professional development. Her experience and training in professional development and in curriculum design is extensive. She has implemented and supervised an entire district’s professional learning communities. She is pursuing a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.