Joan Allison Booth, Ed.D.

John M. Clayton Elementary School
Indian River School District
Frankford, Delaware
joan.booth@irsd.k12.de.us

In her eight years leading John M. Clayton Elementary School (JMC), Allisa Booth, Ed.D., is most proud to have created an environment where students, parents, and staff feel genuinely at home and consider the school a family. Booth has been particularly effective at convening a team of research-based, student-centered instructional coaches at JMC and developing systems that give teachers agency in proactively integrating targeted supports in the classroom. Booth also led a revamp of the school’s unique Spanish immersion program to better align instruction in both languages with a renewed focus on structured language output. These curricular updates have been balanced with administrative improvements that have allowed the program to better serve Spanish-speaking newcomers through pre-admission assessment of each student’s academic readiness. Driven by her commitment to equity, Booth launched the Latino Family Literacy Project to strengthen language acquisition for students and families by creating shared reading experiences at home. The program even expanded during the pandemic, with more opportunities for direct family-school engagement. Booth also recently led JMC in adopting the S.M.A.R.T. program to build foundational skills and facilitate early detection of needed supports for the K-5 school’s youngest students. A committed lifelong learner, Booth holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership, an M.Ed. in Education, and a graduate certificate in School Administration from Wilmington University, and a B.A. in English from the University of Delaware and plans to pursue national board certification.