Dr. Johnson-Mussad serves as a staff consultant in leadership and instruction at the Collaborative for Educational Services. He travels nationally to facilitate professional development for school leaders, teachers and other licensed educators in instructional leadership; English learner education; world language and bilingual education; adolescent literacy education; improving outcomes for students in poverty; and social-emotional learning. In addition to professional development, he provides individualized leadership and instructional coaching, curriculum development and strategic planning, and educational program evaluation.
Johnson-Mussad is a seasoned K-12 teacher and curriculum leader who has worked with central office and school-based administrators to increase achievement for both striving learners [or less ready learners] and gifted and talented [more ready] learners. He has taught K-12 English learners and high school Spanish. Albert served as an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, and also in the role of elementary school principal. He has been helping K-12 writers who are English learners, including EL’s with disabilities, to communicate personally compelling meaning for 30 years. He is the middle son of immigrants from Egypt, and a heritage speaker of English who also speaks Spanish and some Arabic.
Learn more about:
Dr. Johnson-Mussad is currently serving a 3-year term on Massachusetts DESE's Gifted and Talented Advisory Council.
His publications include:
- Responsive Collaboration for IEP and 504 Teams, book. Co-authored 2022, Corwin.
- Instructional Techniques including Artists in Residence, Pair Shuffle, Who goes there? in New ways in Teaching English at the Secondary Level, Deborah Short. 1999, VA: TESOL
Among his recent conference presentations are Teaching Writers Learning English or Who Have IEPs, presented at the 2023 LitCon, the largest K-8 literacy education conference in North America; Improving Outcomes for Students in Poverty, at the 2024 Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program Conference; and Listening and Reading for Nonfiction Learning: Explicit Comprehension Instruction, for Massachusetts Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages. Albert has also presented at Future FocusED, a New England conference on the future of school.
You can also hear Albert in three podcasts, In Search of Meaning (This PhD Thinks, 2022), Reflections on Effective IEPs (Phenomenal Spotlight w/Mr. Short: Albert Johnson-Mussad, 2023), and Journeys Into Being (Episode 3 with host, Renata Pienkawa, 2023).
"Albert creates a great community within his instruction where all levels of educators are welcomed and appreciated. As a result, every member of the course is engaged and contributes knowledge based on their experiences. This means that the participants come away with enormous "hands-on" strategies with ways to use them in different settings because of the discussions we have." –5th Grade ELA/SS Teacher