"I supervised Ms. Kephart; I am a Special Education Supervisor/504 Coordinator for RRISD. I have also had the great privilege of serving by Ms. Kephart’s side as an Instructional Coach. Ms. Kephart is highly collaborative and is an asset to our department as her coaching skills have been used to support teachers and ultimately benefit students.

  Ms. Kephart has demonstrated her leadership many times, most specifically with the high schools here in RRISD. She typically begins the process by working with campus leadership to identify the need and then strategically plans the best supports to be provided.  At that point she will either directly with the teacher(s) or collaborate with other instructional coaches to appropriately meet the needs of the teacher and the campus. The supports can range from single visits to a semester/yearly plan of support. Throughout this process Ms. Kephart is sure to document the process and keep the appropriate administrators up to date on progress. She is able to demonstrate her leadership as she completes a majority of these tasks with little supervision.

  If a systematic direct coaching approach is not the best way to support a campus or the district, Ms. Kephart has designed and provided quality professional development in a variety settings and academic areas. The professional development needs are based on campus needs as well as district needs based on multiple pieces of data. Again, she has provided these opportunities either by herself or through collaboration with General Education Instructional Coaches.

  No matter the capacity, Ms. Kephart has demonstrated her use of effective strategies to meet the needs of teachers and staff in RRISD. Her collaboration with all stakeholders should be commended. Due to her professionalism and gifts she brings, we have seen multiple teachers and campuses grow in their endeavors to meet the needs of our students here in RRISD. Through this process Ms. Kephart has shown great initiative to design and redesign supports to best meet the individual needs of all stakeholders.

  Working with and supervising Ms. Kephart has been a pleasure. Not only did I get the chance to work with her as a coach, but I also had the great opportunity to learn from her as I continued my journey in Education."