Fenwick W. English

The school system served 1900 pupils, k-12 with 150 FTE faculty and a $6 million dollar budget.

English received national recognition for his achievements by being elected Associate Executive Director–American Association of School Administrators (the AASA) and Director of the National Center for the Improvement of Learning.

Arlington, Virginia.

Although this position was honorary, it gave him exposure to people and movements within education at the national level.

It also gave him the opportunity to plan and direct two national summer conferences in Minneapolis and Denver.

He documented his ideas and work in his books School Organization and Management, Needs Assessment: A focus for Curriculum Development and Quality Control in Curriculum Development.

Fenwick W. English (born February 9, 1939, Los Angeles, California, United States) is an education professor.

In 1956 English enrolled in college at USC where he graduated with a B.S. in English and Education in 1961, and an M.S. in Elementary Administration in 1963.

While studying for his M.S. he was also a teacher of third grade at the Tweedy Elementary School in South Gate, California.

From his career start as a third grade teacher, English quickly moved up in the ranks of practicing educators and in school administrators.

He taught elementary and middle school at Palm Crest Elementary School and Foothill Intermediate School in La Canada, California from 1961–1964.

His leadership in the classroom was respected and this led to his promotion to Assistant Middle School Principal at that same Foothill Intermediate School from 1964–1965.

In 1965, he moved up to Middle School Principal and Central Project Director, Temple City USD, Temple City, California.

It was during his five years at Temple City that he started to formulate his ideas into writing.

His observations in the classroom and school became the groundwork for his first book Differentiated staffing: Giving teaching a chance to improve learning published in 1969.

The book was well received, and it was not long before he was putting his theories into practice.

In 1970 he was asked to direct a project in staff differentiation with three pilot schools in the Mesa Public Schools District in Mesa, Arizona.

The project was funded by Arizona State University where English was employed with the title of Project Director/Visiting Lecturer.

In essence he was conducting practical research by being allowed to reorganize each pilot school along slightly different models and then measure performance differences.

In Washington, D.C. in the late 1970s, President Jimmy Carter's administration was moving for the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Education.

Consultants were needed who knew education at the practical level.

This work was the topic of his Doctoral Dissertation, and he received his Ph.D. in 1972.

There was a clear improvement of student performance due to organization and differentiation of staff.

The positive results were published in two books Strategies for Differentiated Staffing (1972) and School Organization and Management (1975).

What worked in Arizona on the small scale would get its true test in the Sarasota County, Florida district schools.

English was hired as the Assistant Superintendent for Personnel and Program Development by that district.

At 25,000 students, the implementation was more difficult but just as effective as in Arizona.

From 1974 to 1977 English served as the Superintendent of Schools for Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.

In 1979 English was hired by Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (KPMG Peat Marwick) as their National Practice Director, North American Continent, for Elementary and Secondary Education, in the firm's Washington, D.C. Office.

The consulting business opened English's eyes to a whole new set of tools.

Business auditing and accounting practices were well-refined and formed the core of KPMG's business.

English grasped these tools quickly and was successful in being elected as a partner in the firm in 1980.

Could business auditing practices be used to further refine Educational Administration to create a better education system?

English discussed the concept and the potential benefits in Improving Curriculum Management in the Schools (1980), and Fundamental Curriculum Decisions (1983).

In 2002, he became the Robert Wendel Eaves Sr. Chair at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

This distinguished position honors one of this century's great leaders in elementary education.

He served in that role into 2018 when he moved to Teacher's College, Ball State University to be a professor and department chair.

Fenwick English was born in Los Angeles, California to middle-class parents Mel and Phyllis.

His father taught middle school woodshop and his mother taught music.

Fenwick's father and mother were both accomplished pianists.