Jana Beth Francis

Jana Beth Slibeck Francis is the Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning for the Daviess County Public Schools. She oversees all aspects of the learning process for approximately 12,000 students, working closely with administrators to provide professional learning. Prior to serving as Assistant Superintendent, she was the Director of Assessment, Research and Curriculum Development and a staff developer for two elementary schools responsible for providing on-going job embedded professional development to educators.

Jana Beth was recognized by Education Week as a 2020 Leader to Learn From for her leadership in curriculum.

A National Board Certified Teacher in Middle Grades, Jana Beth started her teaching career 24 years ago in Atlanta, GA, where she received a Master’s in Administration and Supervision from the Principal’s Academy at the Principals’ Center at Georgia State University. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in pure mathematics from Wellesley College in Boston, MA. Having been raised in Eastern Kentucky, Jana Beth and her husband Matt enjoy being back in the Commonwealth raising their daughter Eliza Beth.

Jana Beth is on Twitter at @JanaBethFrancis.

Hear From Jana Beth

You can also hear more about Jana Beth’s curriculum work in her piece for NASSP magazine, Navigating Curriculum Selection to Maximize Improvement, as well as her EdWeek Leader to Learn From feature.

Daviess County’s Implementation Journey

Because Kentucky supports site-based decision making for curricular materials, half of Daviess County elementary schools adopted Wit & Wisdom (in 2016-17) and half adopted the EL Education K-8 Language Arts (in 2017-18).  The following year, the district extended Wit & Wisdom to middle school and most elementary schools adopted Eureka Math by Great Minds. Even before schools chose a specific curriculum, district and school leaders led extensive professional learning on the instructional shifts called for by more rigorous literacy standards. They built coherence around the beliefs needed to successfully teach complex text, rigorous vocabulary, and foundational skills. Six years later, as they regroup during pandemic disruptions, our educators continue to come back to this belief system as the foundation of a successful and enduring curriculum implementation.