Rachel Previs Ball, Ed.D., currently serves as a Senior Research Associate with fifteen years of K-12 experience in Virginia. She previously served as the first alumna director of a regional governor's school in Virginia for high-ability and gifted students in grades 10-12. She has also served as the principal of a primary school in a Virginia school district while also working on special projects for Stronge & Associates. Rachel has taught at the elementary through graduate levels. She received her undergraduate, master’s, and doctorate degrees from The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. Her dissertation addressed Virginia principals’ knowledge of classroom assessment and support of assessment for learning practices. She is a graduate of the School University Research Network’s Principal Academy, where she completed a two-year action research project that focused on providing formative observation feedback to teachers regarding student engagement. She has presented at various national, state, and local conferences, including the National Association of Elementary School Principals and Visible Learning.

James H. Stronge, Ph.D., is President and CEO of Stronge and Associates Educational Consulting, LLC, an educational consulting company that focuses on teacher and leader effectiveness with projects internationally and in many U.S. states. He founded Stronge and Associates in 2011 and continues to be actively involved in the company’s work. Additionally, he is the Heritage Professor of Education, a distinguished professorship, in the School of Education at William & Mary, in Williamsburg, Virginia. His research interests include policy and practice related to teacher quality and effectiveness, teacher and administrator evaluation, and teacher selection. He has worked extensively with state departments of education, school districts, and national and international educational organizations to support teacher and leader effectiveness, including designing and implementing evaluation and hiring systems for teachers, administrators, and other educational personnel. He has made more than 350 presentations at regional, national, and international conferences, and conducted workshops for educational organizations extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally. Among his current research projects are: 1) international comparative studies of national award-winning teachers in the United States and China, and 2) influences of economic and societal trends on student academic performance in countries globally. His most recent books include What Makes a World-Class School and How We Can Get There (2017, ASCD), Qualities of Effective Teachers, 3rd Ed. (2018, ASCD), Qualities of Effective Principals, 2nd Ed. (2021, ASCD), and International Beliefs and Practices that Characterize Teacher Effectiveness (co-editor) (2021, IGI Global). He has authored, co-authored, or edited 34 books and more than 200 articles, chapters, and technical reports. He was a founding member of the board of directors for the Consortium for Research on Educational Assessment and Teacher Effectiveness, and was selected as the 2012 national recipient of the Millman Award from CREATE in recognition of his work in the field of teacher and administrator evaluation.