Kerry Hoffman, PhD, Co-Director of the Region 8 Comprehensive Center, lives in Region 8 just outside of Indianapolis, IN and has 29 years of education experience at the state, regional, and local levels, spending most of her career in the Indiana education system. Her primary areas of expertise include implementing curriculum and instruction priorities that align to state standards and that enhance student performance on state and local assessments. Dr. Hoffman’s professional roles have included teacher, professor, state assessment consultant, school and district administrator, and university center director. In her most recent role as the director of the Center for Literacy Education and Research (CLEAR) at Purdue University, she partnered with over 50 LEAs in Indiana to identify areas in curriculum, instruction, and/or assessment that could enhance student performance, then designed and delivered TA to address those areas.

She also generated whitepapers and other reports, created and delivered presentations and resources, and managed all aspects of center administration. Furthermore, she has rich experiences with a variety of school settings, student populations, teacher and administrator effectiveness and preparedness, and disparate funding issues. In her role as State Assessment Consultant at IDOE, Dr. Hoffman led the development and administration of the ELA portion of the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus (ISTEP+) for IDOE, and provided guidance and TA to schools related to this assessment and the use of its results in instructional efforts.

Dr. Hoffman’s experiences working in two LEAs in Indiana have provided her with understanding of federal grant management, school improvement efforts directed by both LEAs and an SEA, professional development, leadership coaching, alignment and articulation of curriculum, instruction, and assessment both vertically and horizontally.