Rebecca Kockler
CEO and Founder
Illuminate Literacy

Rebecca Kockler is the CEO and Founder of Illuminate Literacy, a research and design project focused on unlocking the great reader in every child. Rebecca formed an unshakeable belief in the reading potential of students of color and those who experience poverty--and found the inspiration to act on this belief—after decades working closely with students, families, and teachers at the school, district, and state level.

Previously, Rebecca was the Assistant Superintendent of Academics at the Louisiana Department of Education, where she created a comprehensive, nationally recognized academic support model that gave teachers, principals, and districts the tools and supports necessary to align assessments, curriculum, and teacher evaluation for greater impact. She led a total redesign of Louisiana’s teaching and learning system, building nationally validated English language arts curricula and assessments, implementing a widely recognized curricular and assessment review process, founding an advanced principal fellowship program, and training a cohort of over 5,000 teacher leaders each quarter.

As a result of these efforts, students in Louisiana were the fastest-improving

nationally in Advanced Placement and achieved record-high rates in high school graduation, college enrollment, state scholarship eligibility, postsecondary credentialing, and ACT scores. These gains were most significant for students of color. And over the past decade, Louisiana ranked in the top ten for growth among states in all four core subjects of NAEP.

Rebecca began her career as a middle school teacher in Newark, New Jersey. She lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and family.