Jenny Scala
Jenny Scala is a principal researcher for AIR. Scala has managed AIR’s early warning system efforts since 2013 and participates in multiple projects using her expertise in using data to inform instructional decision-making across the nation. She currently oversees implementation of AIR’s early warning intervention and monitoring systems (EWIMS) mid-phase education innovation and research grant and is the project director for work helping to ensure students leave high school ready for their postsecondary plans (with Milton Hershey School). She was a deputy director of the College and Career Readiness and Success Center and recently lead a project conducting an external evaluation of an early warning system program in middle schools in Philadelphia.
Scala has led projects focused on dropout prevention in rural states and districts as well as urban districts. Scala has served as a researcher on multiple Regional Education Laboratories, including West and the Northeast and the Islands leading early warning systems work including indicator validation, development of an early warning system tool, and implementation of early warning systems. Scala has served as a technical assistance liaison for the National High School Center as well as a technical assistance provider for the National Center on Response to Intervention. In these roles, she has provided trainings and professional development opportunities to a number of state, district, and school leadership teams in a number of states.
Scala has been providing technical assistance to educators for over 15 years. Her technical assistance experience to states, districts, schools, and other technical assistance providers includes supporting state education agency staff to create new strategies for supporting underperforming districts and schools; assisting states, districts and schools to support implementation of RTI in secondary schools; aiding states to address high school improvement; and creating statewide frameworks focused on improving adolescent literacy outcomes. She has also worked with districts to provide volunteers training aligned to district curriculum; and has provided social/emotional programs to both middle and high school students.