John Norton, Communications Advisor

John Norton serves as the editor and moderator for the Teacher Leaders Network, in addition to assisting CTQ with overall communications. A graduate of Clemson University, John is a former education journalist who worked at several daily newspapers in theSoutheast and is a former vice president of the national EducationWriters Association. From 1986-90, John was executive director of the South Carolina Center for Teacher Recruitment. In 1990, he joined the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board as vice president for information. After six years at SREB, John struck out on his own as a freelance education writer and editor. Among the projects he has worked on since 1996: Editor of the Focused Reporting Project and leader of a team of reporters and education researchers who produced a series of community newspapers about middle grades reform in Long Beach, CA and Louisville, KY; editor/publisher of MiddleWeb, a large website supported by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and focused on middle grades reform; writer/consultant for the Alabama-based A+ Education Foundation and author of the 1999 Alabama task force report "Teaching and Learning: Meeting the Challenge of High Standards. John is editor of "Working Toward Excellence," the journal of the Alabama Best Practices Center and is helping ABPC develop a virtual learning community network supported by a grant from Microsoft Corporation.