Tim Arnold, Ph.D.

Tim Arnold, Ph.D., is a retired superintendent with 33 years of experience in education and currently is an adjunct professor in the Educational Leadership program at Illinois State University.  When he began as a special education teacher in 1991, his focus was on building self-efficacy in each of his students.  This experience provided his foundation as an educational leader, which includes a combined 14 years as a superintendent in both DuPage and Will Counties in Illinois.  Prior to district leadership, he was a special education teacher, assistant principal, dean of students, and school principal.  Through these combined experiences he has developed competencies in executive coaching, strategic planning, and program evaluation.

Dr. Arnold’s purpose is to increase self-efficacy in each individual, as well as the collective efficacy of educators.  He accomplishes this through his work as a leadership coach for superintendents and principals.  His dissertation was a program evaluation of an executive coaching model and was awarded the LEADS Fellowship at Illinois State University in 2015.   

Dr. Arnold has led multiple school and district-level continuous improvement efforts focused on results for students.  As a principal, his schools earned the Illinois Academic Excellence Award (2008, 2009, & 2010) and  the Illinois Academic Improvement Award (2006).  At the district level, he has led multiple strategic plans and successfully implemented district-wide PLC models in two districts.  He has presented on implementing a district-wide PLC model at the state-level.

In addition to experience as the superintendent of both a small rural district, and then medium-sized suburban school districts, Dr. Arnold has performed the functions of human resources and school business roles, that superintendents in larger districts are typically able to delegate.  He has led the human resources functions in three school districts for 14 years and earned the Human Capital Leaders in Education (pHCLE) certification through AASPA.  He also is a Chief School Business Official (CSBO) and led the business offices in two school districts for a total of 9 years.