Lori Haven

For nearly a decade, Lori Haven has taught at elementary schools in the Franklin-McKinley School District of San Jose, California. While she has occasionally taught fifth, third, and first grade, Ms. Haven has instructed only sixth graders for the past six years. Since fall 2010, she has taught at Jeanne R. Meadows Elementary School.

Lori Haven teaches sixth graders at Jeanne R. Meadows Elementary School,
which possesses students from kindergarten through eighth grade. Enrollment at the school exceeds 800, with a ratio of students per teacher of 25. The website GreatSchools.org gives the Meadows School a rating of 6 on a scale of 10, primarily based on the performance of students on California state standardized tests. Ms. Haven also serves as the school’s site advisor for the State of California’s Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) program.

From 2003 to 2010, Lori Haven worked at Robert F. Kennedy Elementary School, where she focused on the entire range of subjects in sixth-grade classrooms. Located in San Jose, Kennedy Elementary includes about 700 students ranging from kindergartners to sixth graders. During the seven-year period that she taught sixth grade at Kennedy, Ms. Haven pursued and obtained her Master of Arts in Education Administration from the University of Phoenix. Based on her academic performance while pursuing her Master’s degree, she qualified for admission to Phi Beta Kappa International. Her MA serves as a partial credential to enable Lori Haven to move into school administration and apply to become an elementary school principal. At present, she prefers to stay in the classroom and teach.

With a strong interest in curriculum development and classroom management, Lori Haven has recently considered opening a charter school. She would like to challenge the public school model that ties grade level to a student’s age. She would substitute a grade-by-ability approach. In her alternative system, Ms. Haven would advance children by grade level only after they have established an understanding of the material for the preceding grade, not simply because they have grown a year older.