Cynthia Anderson is associate superintendent for the Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas, where she oversees curriculum and instruction, special education, staff development, career and technical education, volunteer programs, libraries, online learning, parents as teachers, and all federal programs. Mrs. Anderson has previously been a school librarian, a principal, and director of media services. She has published two books, Write Grants, Get Money, and District Library Administration: A Big Picture Approach. At the time of her Milken Educator Award, Mrs. Anderson was principal of Somerset Elementary School in Prairie Village, where she led her staff in developing a literature-based reading program, based on the belief that children's reading skills and reading habits are dramatically improved through exposure to good literature. By equating basic literacy with cultural literacy the program was successful on many fronts, capturing the interest of teachers as much as that of students. In 1993, under the leadership of Mrs. Anderson, Somerset Elementary School became a Kansas State Blue Ribbon School.
Helping each student reach his or her potential while teaching to the standards and achieving Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP)is our ultimate goal in education today. I believe that working together to get the best professional development to the best teachers, getting the curriculum aligned with the state and national standards, and using the best pedagogy can produce the right conditions for every student to achieve.
1967 University of Missouri - Kansas City, B.A.
