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M. René Islas |

Senior Vice President

Professional Experience

M. René Islas is a Senior Vice President at B&D Consulting and leads the firm's elementary and secondary education team, which provides public and private sector clients comprehensive strategies to dramatically improve educational effectiveness. René has nearly a decade of experience leading education reform through practical and policy work at the federal, state and local levels. He created B&D Consulting's provisionally patented school improvement process that is currently being implemented in more than a dozen of the lowest performing schools across the United States.

René joined B&D Consulting after several years of experience in education public policy, working in the government and nonprofit sectors. He is widely recognized on Capitol Hill and in education advocacy communities as an expert in elementary and secondary education policy. René leads B&D Consulting's education practice group, bringing an in-depth understanding of the complexities of the legislative process.

René previously served as the Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretary of Education. He managed the overall operations, policy development and administration of programs within the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, particularly programs within the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. René advised on the implementation of NCLB and oversaw the department's compliance monitoring of the highly qualified teacher provisions of NCLB.

René also has experience representing the Department of Education on issues of teacher quality and working with coalitions of state government education agencies in an effort to address teacher supply and demand. He advised and supported the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.

Honors

• Whittier College — Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, 2007
• Institute for Educational Leadership — Education Policy Fellowship, 2002
• Tregoe Education Forum — Decision Analysis Training, 2001
• Ben G. Burnett Award — Outstanding Undergraduate Career in Political Science, 2000

Civic Activities

• Knights of Columbus, 3^rd Degree

Memberships

• Phi Delta Kappa International (Professional Association for Educators) — Professional Member, 2008-present
• Pi Sigma Alpha (National Political Science Honor Society) — President, 2000-01
• Associated Student of Whittier College — President, 1999-2000

Publications

• "The History of the Department of Education," Encyclopedia of Education, Macmillan Reference, 2002
• "Striving to Achieve: Two Decades of School Reform," Encyclopedia of Education, Macmillan Reference, 2002
• "TIMSS and the Influence of the Instructional Leader on Mathematics and Science Performance," National Association of Secondary School Principals Bulletin, Vol. 85, No. 623, March 2001

Presentations

• "Transforming Low Performing Schools into High Performing Learning Organizations," B&D Consulting National Webinar, 2009
• "Navigating the Transition from Highly Qualified to Highly Effective Teachers," National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality What Works Conference, 2006
• "Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Teachers for Latino Students," Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Roundtable, 2006
• "Raising Student Achievement Through the Equitable Distribution of Highly Qualified Teachers," National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality Web Conference, 2006
• "What Does the Highly Qualified Teacher Provision of NCLB Mean for Quality Teaching," National Commission on Teaching and America's Future Partners Symposium, 2006
• "Improving the Effectiveness of Teacher Professional Development," Center on Education Policy Forum on the No Child Left Behind Act, 2005
• "Measuring Teacher Success: Innovative Developments in Assessing Teacher Performance," Harvard University Government Innovators Network, 2005