Catherine Barbour

Senior Advisor on Principal Effectiveness
AIR
Catherine Barbour

Catherine Barbour is a Senior Advisor for the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders and a principal consultant  at American Institutes for Research.  She leads project teams in the design and development of products and services to support states, districts, and schools in their improvement efforts, specifically in the area of school turnaround and transformation. Ms. Barbour has led project teams to design and develop School Improvement Plans for school districts in Illinois, Missouri, New York , and Virginia which resulted in submitting awarded applications. Ms. Barbour provides consulting to states, districts, and schools in designing, implementing, and evaluating school reform initiatives which may include district and school level leadership training to lead turnaround, developing implementation monitoring indicators and tools, and building systems for sustaining reform initiatives. 

Previously, Barbour was an independent consultant working with schools and districts to provide training and support in the implementation of Professional Learning Communities, school improvement leadership coaching for principals and school teams, and curriculum development.  She has lead three successful school turnarounds as a principal each respectively in an urban, rural and suburban school district.  Barbour’s focus is on turnaround leadership and providing support to state and districts to implement successful turnaround and transformation services. Barbour received her Master’s Degree in Elementary Administration at The College of William and Mary.  Barbour is a credentialed School Turnaround Leader earning her certificate from the Darden/Curry Partnership for Leaders in Education.