Dennis Parker retired in 2000 from the California Department of Education after 20 years of service and in 2001 from UCLA after after almost 6 years as a faculty member of UCLA’s School Management Program (SMP). He now consults independently under the auspices of Best Practices in Education.

He brings a broad range of field experiences as a high school and college teacher, elementary resource teacher, district bilingual program director, and pre-school principal. He has consulted for schools and districts all over the US.

In addition, he holds credentials for teaching, administration, and bilingual-crosscultural education as well as a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics and graduate work in Multicultural Education.

For 20 years, he served as both consultant and administrator at the California Department of Education. There he worked on initiatives related to bilingual education, the School Improvement Program, Reading / Language Arts, school coaching, Title I, and programs related to low-performing schools.

Since 2000, he has worked in California and other states to successfully translate his Strategic Schooling theory and research into dramatic academic gains for the most struggling students, teachers, schools, and districts.