Congratulations to

2006 Mathematics Educator of the Year

Susan McNally

The 2006 Kenneth P. Kidd Educator of the Year is Susan McNally.  This prestigious award is given annually to an educator in Florida who has made outstanding contributions to mathematics education in the state.    Each year nominations are solicited from the Florida Council of Teachers of Mathematics membership and voted on by the FCTM Board.

Susan has been active in mathematics education in Florida since 1985 when she began her teaching career in the Sarasota County Schools at Sarasota Middle School and then Sarasota High School.  Leaving the state in 1989, Susan taught in the Indianapolis Public Schools for a year before relocating to Georgia where she taught in the Carrollton-Farmers ISD and Decatur County Schools (Georgia) from 1991-1995.  Returning to the Tallahassee area during the summer of 1995, Susan worked in the Leon County School District at Buck Lake Elementary School as the Technology Coordinator then at Lincoln High School teaching various mathematics courses and serving as the Algebra Ia and Ib Lead Teacher.  While working for the Leon County School District, she also taught in the Upward Bound Program at Florida A & M University.  For two years, from August 1999 through August 2001, Susan was the Resource Teacher for the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) Development Center.  Her responsibilities included development and review of mathematics and reading items for grades 9 and 10, review of documents for clarity and correctness, facilitating meetings including Item Review, Rangefinder, and Rangefinder Review to develop scoring guidelines for FCAT performance tasks, Content Advisory and Gridded Response Adjudication, test construction, preparation of training materials for handscoring, monitoring handscoring at scoring sites, producing FCAT interpretive products including Performance Scoring Software and Publication, FCAT test and Item Specifications, and Sample Test Materials.  She also served as the technology contact for the Test Development Center.   In August 2001 Susan began teaching Algebra I and Algebra II at the Florida State University Schools and also serving as the K-12 Mathematics Curriculum Coordinator.  

In November 2002, Susan began working for the Florida Department of Education as the K-12 Mathematics Program Specialist.  Her responsibilities included providing curricular support to schools and districts in the areas of mathematics instruction, content, and pedagogy.  In the Bureau of School Improvement, she was member of the interdisciplinary team to provide assistance to schools rated as “F” in an effort to increase student achievement.  After two years, Susan became the Math-Science Initiative Coordinator for Florida and served as the Project Manager for Title II Part B Math/Science Partnership Program.  She was responsible for analyzing data to determine strengths and weaknesses of mathematics and science achievement at the state level, identifying priorities to overcome these weaknesses, and implementing strategies to increase student achievement in mathematics and science.  Her additional responsibilities included the production of publications and resources for educators, identifying exemplary practices and teaching in the State of Florida to serve as models for other educators, identifying exemplary practices resources to Florida mathematics and science educators aimed at increasing student achievement in mathematics and science.  In March 2005, Susan was selected as the Director in the Office of Curriculum Support for the DOE.  She supervised curriculum specialists in the content areas of Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, Social Studies, Music and Fine Arts.  

Susan McNally has been an FCTM member since returning to Florida in 1995 and was a member of the FCTM Board of Directors from 2000 – 2004 while working for the Department of Education (DOE) in Tallahassee.  She has presented numerous workshops and conference sessions throughout the state of Florida including “So You Are a Math Coach, Now What?” at the 2004 FCTM Conference, “I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me Sooner!” and “FCAT Performance Scoring Software and Score Report Update” at the 2001 FCTM Conference and “Using Algebra Tiles” at the 2000 FCTM Conference.

Currently, Susan is a consultant providing services and support to clients in mathematics education, instructional strategies (research-based best practices), assessment development, school management, school improvement, curriculum mapping, content focused coaching and FCAT.  She lives in Ft. Myers with her husband Kevin and their daughter Kaitlyn. 

Congratulations, Susan!