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Conversations with Doug Wren

Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Wren.

Doug Wren

Hi Doug, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My family moved to DeKalb County, GA when my father took a job as a professor with Georgia State in 1965 (GSU was Georgia State College back then). We had lived previously in Danville, IL, Canton, OH, and Gary, IN, where I was born. I graduated from DeKalb’s Henderson High School in 1972 (HHS became Henderson Middle School in 1996) and received my bachelor’s degree from the University of Georgia in 1977.

After earning my master’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1982, I began working with the Roswell Recreation & Parks Department, where I managed the city’s youth soccer program for seven years. The best career decision I ever made came later when I decided to obtain my teaching certificate and become an elementary school teacher in the early 1990s.

My first teaching position was at Evansdale Elementary School in DeKalb County, GA, less than 1/2 mile from the house I lived in from 1965 to 1972. I taught first grade for six years and second grade for two years, and I met my wife Heather at Evansdale. We were married in 1995 at the historic Whitlock Inn in Marietta. In 1999, I took a job teaching fifth grade at DeKalb’s prestigious Kittredge Magnet School for High Achievers.

The following year I received my doctorate from the University of Georgia. I had been working on an Ed.D. and commuting to Athens a few days a week since 1994. For my dissertation, I developed and validated an instrument for measuring children’s test anxiety. The Children’s Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) was subsequently published in an international journal: https://www.andrews.edu/ceis/gpc/faculty-research/montagano-research/measuring-test-anxie.pdf

Like many teachers, I found that raising a family on a teacher’s salary, even at the doctoral level, was financially challenging. Although Heather loved teaching and was (in my opinion) the best teacher at Evansdale, we agreed it would be better for our young son and daughter to be with their mother instead of in childcare for 7-8 hours each weekday. Despite also finding it difficult to leave teaching, I interviewed for and was offered a much higher-paying job as a Research Specialist with the DeKalb County School District’s Department of Research & Evaluation in 2005.

When my boss retired in 2006, I went through another round of interviews and was promoted to Director of Research & Evaluation. Unfortunately, this was during the turbulent tenure of Superintendent Crawford Lewis, so I decided to leave DeKalb County Schools. (For more info, Google these terms: DeKalb, Lewis, scandal.)

In 2008, I accepted what appeared to be my “dream job” with Virginia Beach City Public Schools (VBCPS), and our family of four left the Atlanta area for Virginia Beach, VA. My initial position was Assessment Specialist, but by the time I retired from VBCPS in 2019, my job title had been upgraded to the more accurate Educational Measurement & Assessment Specialist. The work required a technical understanding of test development, interpretation, and measurement, as well as working knowledge of the classroom.

After an article I co-authored was published in ASCD’s Educational Leadership journal (https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/mission-possible-measuring-critical-thinking-and-problem-solving), an editor at Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group asked me to write a book. About four years ago, Assessing Deeper Learning: Developing, Implementing, and Scoring Performance Tasks was released (https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475845778/Assessing-Deeper-Learning-Developing-Implementing-and-Scoring-Performance-Tasks).

The book tells the story of the Integrated Performance Task (IPT), a series of large-scale assessments designed to measure the critical thinking, problem-solving, and writing skills of VBCPS students in fourth and seventh grades. The IPT was my main project during my 11.5 years with VBCPS. My friend Chris Gareis, a professor at nearby William & Mary, contributed three chapters to the book. Chris is also from DeKalb County, GA – he graduated from Lakeside High School.

Before the book came out in August 2019, I had already decided to retire from public education. The time seemed ripe to become my own boss and do consulting work with schools and districts interested in developing nontraditional tests. Soon after I completed a few short-term projects, the pandemic hit and business came to a halt.

Then two of my educator friends launched the nonprofit organization Edjacent (https://www.edjacent.org/). Meghan Raftery and Mark Diacopoulos worked with me in the VBCPS central office and experienced the same frustrations with public education that I did and still do. The name Edjacent is derived from a concept called the “adjacent possible,” explained in this blog post by Meghan: https://www.edjacent.org/post/the-adjacent-possible-for-education

While Wren Educational Consulting was on hiatus, Edjacent blossomed. Our well-attended Zoom meetings were inspirational; it was refreshing to discuss important topics with other thoughtful, knowledgeable educators. In addition, I began writing regularly for Edjacent’s blog. To date, I’ve authored 25 posts, most pertaining to inequities in education, gun violence, and leadership shortcomings in public education (https://www.edjacent.org/profile/dougwren/profile).

Where I am today: My consulting business never really took off, but that’s not a problem. Heather loves her job helping educators across the country as a Technology Support Specialist with GoGuardian, and I am comfortable in retirement. I teach an educational assessment course at Old Dominion University and keep up with issues in education on the national, state, and local levels. Edjacent keeps me connected with my chosen profession and Wren Educational Consulting takes on the occasional odd job.

Meanwhile, I continue to get regular requests for the test anxiety scale I developed over 20 years ago. The CTAS has been used nationally and internationally in hundreds of studies involving children’s test anxiety and has been translated into at least ten other languages.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
After changing careers from public recreation to public education, I found teaching to be fun and professionally satisfying. Things changed when I became Director of Research & Evaluation of the DeKalb County School District (DCSD). At the time, I was naïve and thought education was a calling for everyone who chose it as a career. What I learned at the DCSD central office was that many administrators are more concerned with self-promotion and office politics than doing what is best for students. Although DeKalb’s central office was toxic during the Crawford Lewis regime, my experience there prepared me for when the same type of culture emerged at Virginia Beach City Public Schools. (Sorry about the negativity – I’m just being honest.)

 Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
As I mentioned earlier, I recently began teaching an undergraduate assessment course at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA. I believe in the appropriate use of testing to benefit children rather than harm them, something that could become a reality in our schools if all districts and teacher preparation programs taught “assessment literacy” (https://www.michigan.gov/mde/services/student-assessment/assessment-literacy). Rather than improving education, the overemphasis on end-of-year, state-mandated standardized tests has led to a decline in student learning over the past two decades. I suppose my passion for equity and appropriate assessment in education is what sets me apart from other people.

 Any big plans?
Recently, my wife and I decided that we want to move back to the Atlanta area. Other than relocating, I don’t anticipate any other big changes. Heather will continue to work for GoGuardian and I will continue to teach, write, and consult.

 

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Image Credits
LaKaye Mbah Photography (2 headshots: light blue & magenta shirts)

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