As LDC’s Director, Curriculum and Assessment, Nicole’s work focused on ensuring that LDC’s curriculum and assessments provide rigorous, equitable, and scaffolded experiences for all students. Her work focused on the meaningful use of performance assessment as an integral part of authentic disciplinary curriculum for both formative and summative purposes. She oversaw the development, field testing, and validation of curriculum, assessments, and rubrics for writing and disciplinary practices in ELA, Science, and History/Social Studies. She supported school systems in the use of student work analysis for formative assessment, instructional planning, calibration of scoring, and curriculum improvement. Additionally, Nicole brought her expertise as a designer and facilitator of in-person and virtual professional learning for teachers and system leaders to LDC’s national community. She also managed LDC’s SCALE-validated peer review process for curriculum quality. 

Prior to joining LDC, Nicole was the Director of ELA Learning and Assessment at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE).  She began her career in education as a passionate teacher of secondary English in Metro Nashville Public Schools, where in addition to teaching every 9-12 English class under the sun, she supported implementation of Project Based Learning and the Paideia philosophy of active learning. Nicole holds an M.Ed. in Secondary English Education from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. She also holds an M.A. and a B.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Virginia.

Nicole is currently the Director of Instructional Design, Curriculum and Innovation, 6-12 at Carnegie Learning.