Ms. Laidley has a passionate belief in the importance of educators’ use of structured processes to collaboratively learn from student work in order to enhance teaching and learning. Therefore, UCLA SMP’s Critical Friends Groups Coaches Institute is a key focus of her work. She has spent two years as a co-director of the National School Reform Faculty (the national network for Critical Friends), and is a lecturer for the UCLA Principal Leadership Institute. Most recently, Ms. Laidley served for two years as the Secondary Literacy Coordinator for LAUSD Local District 6, where she led a team of eight local district staff and 17 school site literacy coaches in support of teaching to enhance content literacy in middle and high school classrooms. As a result of Debbi’s leadership, the schools instituted and are continuing to maintain a focus on the Reading Apprenticeship approach in support of struggling adolescent readers. Ms. Laidley began her work with UCLA SMP while she was lead teacher at Foshay Learning Center (LAUSD), where her focus was on increasing collaboration, ensuring inclusive processes for all stakeholders, and building leadership capacity among teachers and parents. She holds degrees in English and Journalism and, since beginning her teaching career in 1978, she has taught English, ESL, student leadership, and Journalism in grades 7-12. Debbi also holds a Master’s Degree in educational administration from Mount St. Mary’s College.

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