David Stewart

David Stewart

David Stewart, EdD, currently serves as assistant superintendent for school leadership and instruction at Capistrano Unified School District in Orange County, California. Prior to his role as a principal leadership coach and supervisor, he served as executive director of K–12 professional learning, principal, assistant principal, and teacher.

As the executive director of professional learning, Dr. Stewart was tasked with building a successful professional learning community across 56 schools that resulted in improved outcomes for 50,000 students. This included leading a districtwide professional learning communities (PLC) guiding coalition responsible for developing, implementing, and advancing a systematic approach to support over 2200 teachers and administrators in the PLC process. Dr. Stewart facilitated the creation of a comprehensive plan and PLC training modules that allowed all teachers in his school district to develop the skills necessary so that teacher teams can function as a high performing PLC. This system helped to support Bernice Ayer Middle School in obtaining Model PLC at Work® school status, and currently there are over 10 schools in his district applying to also become Model PLC at Work schools. He helped Capistrano earn the distinguished Golden Bell Award from the California School Board Association for its PLC work in 2021.

In his current role, Dr. Stewart is responsible for mentoring, coaching, and supervising 18 elementary school principals. He spends 60 percent of his time working directly on site with principals to provide both the support and accountability needed to ensure all schools are effectively using the PLC process to implement a multitiered system of supports (MTSS) to help all students learn at high levels.

Dr. Stewart received his bachelor’s degree in elementary science from Eastern Michigan University, a master’s degree in educational administration from California State University San Bernardino, and doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Southern California.

PLC at Work^®

PLC at Work® experts have proven success in leading the PLC at Work process in a school or district. Work with them to implement a focus on learning, build a collaborative culture, and create a results orientation that leads to sustained, substantive school improvement.

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Presentations by David Stewart

• Building Capacity: Effective Feedback and Coaching
• Transformational Leadership: Support and Accountability
• Continuous School Improvement
• Creating a Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum
• Building Common Formative Assessments
• Gathering, Organizing, and Analyzing Data
• Systematic Intervention and Extension
• Equity-Driven Leadership
• Data-Driven Leadership