Education – About Andrew Jordan

How to Establish Core Values for a School

With experience primarily working in Savanna, Illinois, and nearby areas, Andrew “Andy” Jordan is the principal of Donovan High School. He previously served as the principal of West Carroll Primary School, where he incorporated teacher peer observations to improve pedagogy. One issue that Andrew Jordan is passionate about is improving school cultures.

Creating a more positive school culture first entails collecting data on how students, staff, and parents perceive the current culture. Via well-designed surveys that give equal weight to everyone, the resultant plan can account for everyone’s needs. With this data as inspiration, school administration determines the institution’s core values by revising the preexisting mission statement to incorporate them. These new documents can inspire all involved, while also setting clear expectations for acceptable behavior.

The core values only hold meaning if students and faculty exhibit or teach them of their own volition, in a manner suited to them. To motivate students, it can help to create a mentorship program where older students pair up with younger ones to help them model and practice the values. Teachers can also benefit from the time and resources to apply the values through lesson plans or workshops. Finally, recognizing students and faculty for demonstrating the core values through events can help positively reinforce them.

For more information about Andrew Donovan’s work, please visit https://www.youtube.com/c/AndyJordanPrincipal.

Donovan – Economic, Political, and Educational Statistics

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Andrew “Andy” Jordan began his educational career as a teacher and assistant principal at West Prairie High School in Sciota, Illinois. He became the principal at West Carroll Primary School, where he improved the test scores by 20 percent and drastically reduced out-of-school suspension. Now a principal of a high school, Andrew Jordan oversees Donovan High School in Donovan, Illinois.

Donovan is a village in Iroquois County named after the local Donovan family who founded it in 1872. Today, Donovan has an unemployment rate of 5.6 percent compared to the national average of 6.0 percent. However, the cost of living in Donovan is 29.9 percent lower than the national average.

As for politics, Donovan, according to the last presidential election, is mainly Republican, with 77.5 percent voting Republican. Since 2020, Donovan’s population has dropped by 40.7 percent and now boasts 279 people. Its public schools spend $11,604 per student, with 12.9 students for every teacher.

Illinois Principals Association Appoints First Black President

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The recipient of a master’s degree in educational leadership from Western Illinois University, Andrew Jordan has more than a decade of experience in the education sector as a teacher, coach, and principal. Complementing his experience, Andrew Jordan holds membership with the Illinois Principals Association (IPA).

The IPA is celebrating its 50th anniversary during the 2021-22 school year and will be led by its first-ever Black president, Dr. Marcus Belin. A member of the IPA since 2013, Dr. Belin was appointed president on July 1.

Dr. Belin serves as principal at Huntley High School and was named one of three Digital Principals of the Year by the National Association of Secondary School Principals earlier this year. He oversaw the school’s competency-based education program for remote and in-person learning and has been instrumental in tech integration to support social-emotional learning for students.

Since joining the IPA, Dr. Belin has held roles with the organization, including Central Illinois Valley Region Membership Chair and State Legislative Chairperson. He began working as a social studies teacher in 2010 and later served as assistant principal at Dunlap High School prior to joining Huntley High School. He received his doctoral degree from National Lewis University and holds a master’s degree in education administration from Bradley University.

The Three Tiers of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports

As the principal of West Carroll Primary School in Savanna, Illinois, Andrew Jordan directed daily operations of a preschool to fourth grade elementary school with more than 450 students. In addition to helping improve test scores by 20 percent, Principal Andre Jordan introduced strategies such as positive behavioral interventions and supports at the school.

Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) is a three-tier, evidence-based framework to help improve student outcomes.

Tier 1: The school provides universal, proactive support to all students. At this tier, teachers clearly communicate expectations, teach appropriate behaviors, and intervene before unwanted behaviors escalate.

Tier 2: This tier provides targeted support for at-risk students, including group interventions and specific guidance in social skills, self-management, and academic assistance. These interventions have been shown to have positive impacts for 67 percent of referred students.

Tier 3: Students receive intensive, individualized support to help improve academic and behavioral outcomes. These strategies are highly effective with students who have developmental disabilities, autism, and other diagnoses.

Education’s Role as a Socio-Economic Factor

Andrew Jordan leverages four college degrees, including a master’s in educational administration from Western Illinois University, as a transformative principal and educational change agent. A member of the Illinois Principals Association, Andrew Jordan adheres to a leadership philosophy that provides children from all socio-economic groups with equal educational opportunities.

Socio-economic grouping refers to a method of classifying groups or individuals depending on their social status. An individual’s group, also known as socio-economic status, is typically determined by education, occupation, and income and can have major implications on access to social resources.and future economic success. Other factors may include family supports, social supports, and even crime rates.

Education plays a critical role in social economics in several ways. For example, education directly impacts future income earning potential. Studies show that each year of schooling leads to an 11 percent increase in annual income. Higher education levels also increase the likelihood of higher paying jobs that provide better benefits, safer working environments, and a greater sense of control over one’s life. Moreover, individuals with higher levels of education live nine years longer on average than those who dropped out of high school.

Tips on How to Improve Student Test Scores

An accomplished Illinois administrator, educator, and principal, Andrew Jordan has close to a decade of experience in the field of education working in various institutions. Among Andrew Jordan’s key career roles was a principal at West Carroll Primary School in Savanna, Illinois where he was in charge of all school operations and successfully increased test scores by 20 percent.

With Common Core State Standards being implemented across the US, most teachers and school administrators are focused on improving student test scores. Even though schools need to work collectively and raise their test scores, below are techniques teachers can use to help students improve their test scores.

1. Teaching students test-taking strategies is a key step that can lead to good results, especially for lower-performing students. Some of the strategies include arriving at an answer by eliminating the answers which are wrong and looking for information in a question that might provide a hint to the answer.

2. Analyze student data to discover areas where students have weaknesses. Teachers can do this by carefully evaluating the practice data to check for weak areas that need attention. Student data analysis can be time-consuming, but there are software applications that can gather all student data in a single online location for analysis.

3. Increase parent involvement by ensuring parent-teacher communication remains consistent throughout the year. Students tend to perform better in school when their parents and guardians are involved. There should be an open-door policy that encourages parents to stay informed about their children’s education. Parents can help in the library, monitor the lunchroom and tutor students.