John Bell is coordinator of the Office of Leadership and Evaluation at the Alabama Department of Education. In his 38 years as an educator, John served as a school administrator for 13 years serving as a middle and high school principal and as headmaster of a large private school. John is the project administrator for Alabama’s Congress on School Leadership, a group of stakeholders responsible for leadership reforms. The Governor’s Congress created the Alabama Standards for Instructional Leaders, the redesign of Alabama’s university leader preparation programs, the Office of Leadership Development, the new professional studies process, and a certification system that rewards leadership excellence.

For eight years, John was a group leader at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education Principals’ Center. He has also served on the Harvard Principals’ Center Advisory Board. John has also worked extensively with the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) who has supported the work of leadership reform in Alabama. John also served on the committee to write the standards and to design the certification process for Accomplished Principal Certification with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards.

John was recently a guest of the European Union Education Ministry in Brussels, Belgium through a Vanderbilt University initiative to share leadership reforms. John is co-author of two other books from Eye On Education: From At-Risk to Academic Excellence: What Successful Leaders Do and Creating School Cultures that Embrace Learning: What Successful Leaders Do.

Affiliation

Alabama Department of Education