Alicia Sweet Dawe

West Vine Street School
Stonington Public Schools
Pawcatuck, Connecticut
adawe@stoningtonschools.org

For the last six years, Alicia Sweet Dawe has served as principal of West Vine Street (K-2) and West Broad Street (3-4) Elementary Schools in Pawcatuck, Connecticut, where she recently oversaw a successful merger and expansion project. Throughout, Dawe has strived to create the conditions for student learning by building a professional culture of lifelong adult learning. She envisions PLCs as “living and breathing entities” where she cultivates the leadership of teachers to deliver direct, positive results in student achievement through collective analysis, reflection, and action. The School Data Team has been particularly successful during her tenure, resourcing teachers with the tools needed to focus interventions to align data-driven, student-centered strategies with district-determined outcomes. Dawe believes that high expectations and differentiation are key to student success, which is why she facilitated the creation of a daily enrichment and intervention block across all grades. The WIN block has increased performance and lowered need for intervention. She plans to lead a similar initiative to integrate STEM into the daily schedule, building on successful after-school offerings she has developed. West Broad Street was awarded the School of Academic Distinction in 2014-15 by the Connecticut State Department of Education. Dawe holds a sixth-year degree in Administration and an Intermediate Administration and Supervision Certification from Sacred Heart University, an M.S. in Education from the University of New Haven, and a B.A. in Psychology from Nichols College.