Michael Ryan
Graduate Coordinator, Post-Baccalaureate Certification Programs PK-4 & 4-8
Assistant Professor (2019)
B.S., St. Thomas Aquinas College
M.S. Ed., Bank Street College of Education
Ph.D., Montclair State University
Michael Ryan comes to the West Chester University after serving two years at the University of Delaware as a Senior Leadership Specialist for the Delaware Academy for School Leadership. At the Delaware Academy for School Leadership, Michael served as the Lead Instructor for the UDEL Principal Preparation Program, coached practicing administrators and teachers. He also provided professional development for educators on topics including, Design Thinking, academic vocabulary, student engagement, teacher leadership, and equity. Additionally, Michael has 24 years of experience in public education most in New Jersey and some in New York. He taught elementary school, was an assistant principal, elementary school principal, K-12 Curriculum Director, and Assistant Superintendent. Michael has also taught as an adjunct professor for pre-service teachers at the Ramapo College of New Jersey as well as working as a co-facilitator and mentor for the Montclair State University Network for Educational Renewal action research grant program, guiding K-12 teachers and administrators as they completed year-long action research projects related to their classrooms and schools. He worked with his teachers on one of these projects that lead to a presentation at AERA in 2014 on teacher leadership and an article entitled “Teacher as Researcher, Teacher as Scholar, and Teacher as Leader” published in The New Educator in 2016. His latest article, “Disrupting Professional Learning Structures in Schools by Inviting Teachers to Design Their Own Learning: An Elementary Principal Conducts Practitioner Action Research”, was recently published in Volume 48 of Planning and Changing. Michael has presented at Learning Forward, Common Ground, the National Summit for Principal Supervisors, the 2018 CCSSO action groups conference, Policy and Practice and will be presenting a session called “Making PSEL Practical” at the upcoming 2019 Learning Forward Conference. Michael is skilled in Action Research, Educational Coaching, Elementary Literacy, Elementary Mathematics, Technology Integration, Staff Development, Teacher Evaluation, and Educational Leadership. He holds a Ph.D. in Teacher Education and Teacher development from Montclair State University. Dr. Ryan’s research interests include educators engaging in personal, professional inquiry to intellectualize the teaching profession as well as continuing to strengthen our understanding of the role of the school principal as a teacher educator.