Larry Ainsworth Bio

For the past 20 years, my deep desire has been to help classroom teachers, school leaders, and district leaders carry out their all-important work of helping their students grow and succeed. This desire was born and nurtured during my prior 24 years in the classroom as both an elementary and secondary classroom teacher in demographically diverse schools, when I was able to directly impact the lives of my own 1000+ students.

As the Executive Director of Professional Development at the Leadership and Learning Center in Englewood, Colorado, from 1999-2013, and continuing to the present day as an independent author-consultant, I have had the great fortune to present professional learning workshops and keynotes in school systems throughout the U.S., and in Canada, Argentina, and Switzerland. By working directly with teachers and leaders, I have been able to fulfill my long-held dream of indirectly impacting the lives of thousands of students I will never get to personally meet—a tremendously rewarding quest!

My published books include: Rigorous Curriculum Design, 2nd Edition (2019), Common Formative Assessments 2.0 (2015), “Unwrapping” the Common Core (2014), Prioritizing the Common Core (2013), Rigorous Curriculum Design (2010), Common Formative Assessments (2006), “Unwrapping” the Standards (2003), Power Standards (2003), Five Easy Steps to a Balanced Math Program (2000 and 2006), and my very first book, Student Generated Rubrics (1998). A popular workshop I created,

“Learning Intentions and Success Criteria” (2016), is a step-by-step process that PK-12 educators use to bring clarity to student learning targets.

Throughout my career as a professional developer, I’ve primarily worked on site in school systems to assist leaders and educators in understanding and implementing “timeless” practices: prioritizing and “unwrapping” state standards, developing common formative assessments, designing authentic performance tasks, and creating rigorous curricular units of study in all content areas, pre-kindergarten through grade 12—all to increase teacher efficacy.

My heartfelt goal is to continue helping all educators and leaders positively impact student learning using proven practices with standards, assessment, curriculum, and instruction.

You are welcome to visit my website at www.larryainsworth.com to learn how “Timeless Practices Work Together” to improve student learning, showcasing the latest addition to the site—an Inspiration page for educators sharing why they became teachers, what inspires them, and the touching examples of how they’ve impacted the lives of their students.