Paul Zavitkovsky has 30 years of experience in public education, 18 of which were spent as an elementary and middle school principal in three different communities. In Chicago, the large, racially diverse, high-poverty school he led became the first school in the district ever to receive the International Reading Association's annual Exemplary Reading Program Award for the State of Illinois. In the spring of 2000, the school was also one of only six schools nationally to receive the Fordham/Chase National School Change award for its exemplary turnaround effort. This award was based in part on a 30-point rise in math and reading scores during years at which the school’s poverty rate also continued to increase. He is a leadership coach in the University of Illinois-Chicago's EdD program in urban school leadership.  He area of concentration is bridging gaps between standardized and locally-developed assessments.