Barry W. Sweeny

Barry W. Sweeny is the president of Best Practice Resources, Inc. an independent educational consulting firm in Wheaton, Illinois. He has been a consultant, facilitator, trainer, and author, as well as a presenter and keynoter at educational conferences. Mr. Sweeny’s specialty is the development of teacher mentoring and induction programs and practices that result in high quality instruction and increased student learning. Barry has trained thousands of mentors and administrators, and helped develop or improve hundreds of programs in school districts, professional associations and collaboratives, universities, regional agencies, community and governmental agencies, and businesses. His “High Impact” model of induction and mentoring is used all over the world for accomplishing the goals of supporting and guiding new teachers into the profession AND for creating programs that help districts accomplish their strategic initiatives. Barry is also known for his role in founding the ASCD Mentoring Leadership and Resource Network and is a Director Emeritus of the International Mentoring Association. In addition, Barry has worked in school improvement, peer coaching, staff development, and performance-based teaching, learning, and assessment. Previously, he was an award-winning classroom teacher for 22 years, a district staff developer and mentor program coordinator, and a program development manager at two regional offices of education.