Patti Harrington, Ed.D.

Utah State Superintendent of Public Instruction

Dr. Patti Harrington was named in June 2004 as the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Patti has been in education for more than 25 years. She received her B.A. and M.Ed. at Brigham Young University and her doctorate in Educational Administration at the University of Utah, with a secondary emphasis on Business Leadership.

Working her way through college, Patti Harrington drove school buses on field trips and worked as an aide in a junior high Special Education classroom. Although a journalism major at Brigham Young University, the Special Education classroom provided both the challenge and fulfillment Patti desired in a profession and teaching became Patti's passion.

Passion is a word that aptly describes Dr. Harrington's work in Utah's schools. She was a middle school teacher of children with severe emotional and intellectual disabilities. Some years later, she taught elementary school and served as an elementary principal for five years.

On an overnight appointment, Dr. Harrington took the helm of Provo High School where she served as principal for five years.

"Working with children of any age is a joy and a challenge, but the excitement of being a part of a high school with wonderful teenagers is a great experience," Harrington says. "We can have faith in the future as these students begin to lead our communities." Harrington was named the Secondary School Principal of the Year in 1997 from her work at Provo High School.

Following the high school assignment, Dr. Harrington served as Assistant Superintendent in Provo where the state's first implementation of standards-based instruction took hold. "I had the good fortune of working with 50 teachers, dozens of outstanding administrators, and hundreds of parents in the implementation of standards in Provo," Harrington says. "Our work together was some of the most innovative and exciting of my years in education."

Dr. Harrington was appointed Superintendent in Provo in 2001 and in that year received the BYU College of Education Alumni of the Year award. Eighteen months later she was appointed Associate Superintendent for the State of Utah where she led efforts in the Student Achievement and School Success division, the instructional arm of the Utah State Office of Education.

"I look forward to bridge building with the community and to working toward innovative solutions to perplexing issues in Utah's education," she says of her new assignment. One of those innovations is the work of the Utah State Board of Education on Performance Plus, Harrington notes. The plan is built upon high expectations of performance and calls for progress-based assessment and results-driven accountability.

Superintendent Harrington feels strongly about the value of education and the need for quality teachers in every classroom. "The teacher's role is vital, she says, as teachers prepare our most precious resource, our children, to constructively participate in society." Bringing all of the resources together to that end will be a chief goal of Dr. Harrington's administration.