Jennifer Nauman
Mrs. Jennifer E. Nauman (Jenny) is the Assistant Superintendent of the Cape Henlopen School District where her focus is on ensuring ALL students are successful by focusing on equity, inclusion, and high-quality curriculum.
Jenny was a second and third grade teacher, as well as a reading specialist, prior to coming to the Cape Henlopen School District in 2008. Her career at “Cape” began as an Assistant Principal at Rehoboth Elementary School. For eight years she was Principal of the 2013 National Blue Ribbon Award-winning school, Richard A. Shields Elementary, in Lewes. In 2016, she was named National Distinguished Principal for Delaware.
A recipient of the Terrell Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership, Jenny is active in the Delware Academy of School Principals (DASP) and the Delaware Association of School Administrators (DASA) where she is currently President, advocating for all students, teachers, and principals across the state.
A University of Delaware Magna Cum Laude graduate, with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary and Special Education, Jenny earned her Master’s Degree from Wilmington University in Administration and has her National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certificate. She also received a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Wilmington University.
Jenny enjoys volunteering at her church and for the Phelan-McDermid Syndrome Foundation. Working collaboratively with community groups is another of her passions—particularly her work on behalf of the Minority Community Liaison Committee.
Jenny is on Twitter at @JennyNaumanCape.
You can learn more about Jenny’s experiences with high-quality instructional materials in this article published in Principal Magazine entitled The Elementary Principal’s Guide to Choosing & Evaluating a Literacy Program.
Cape Henlopen’s Implementation Journey
In 2017, Cape Henlopen adopted ARC Core for grades 2-4. Teachers began by resetting a culture of reading and using ARC Core’s Independent Reading Level Assessment (IRLA). This first stage of implementation was so successful that the district expanded to using the full ARC Core curriculum including the Literacy Labs and thematic text sets. After the pilot year, teachers in grades K-1 and 5 joined their colleagues for a full K-5 implementation.
District leaders partnered with coaches at ARC Core who provided customized, differentiated, job-embedded professional development for both administrators and teachers. ARC Core’s coaching included modeling lessons, sitting side-by-side with teachers as they conferenced with students, analyzing lesson effectiveness, and co-teaching revised lessons. At the elementary level, Cape Henlopen also switched from traditional to standards-based grading, which better supported the new ELA curriculum.
In 2020-21, the district expanded the implementation of ARC Core to include middle school grades. As middle schools will return to full in-person learning for 2021-22, the district will continue its partnership with ARC Core coaches to support teachers’ success.
You can follow Jennifer on Twitter at @JennyNaumanCape.
