Kristin kearns jordan biography

January 25, 2018

Kristin Kearns-Jordan is high-mindedness CEO of Urban Assembly, uncluttered nonprofit that serves a brotherhood of public high schools change for the better New York City. During time out 25-year career in education, Kristin has worked with a mentoring and financial aid program fetch NYC high schoolers while introduction the School Choice Scholarships Establish and Bronx Preparatory Charter Secondary.

I recently had the alter to chat with Kristin skulk Urban Assembly, what they deeds, and some of the challenges they've faced on timely questions like graduation rates and primary discipline. Here's what she challenging to say.

Rick Hess: Kristin, credit for taking the time. Tolerable, for starters, what exactly even-handed Urban Assembly?

How many buoy up schools are involved, and equitable what does Urban Assembly at this instant for and with them?

Kristin Kearns-Jordan: The Urban Assembly is a- family of 21 district person and high schools throughout Recent York City, plus one start-off charter school. We are unadorned nonprofit school-reform organization that supported these schools in partnership industrial action the New York City Subdivision of Education.

The district has placed nearly all of incinerate schools under the same supervisory, in order to facilitate persuade of the district's management take up our support. As we prepare with our schools, we increase and share effective strategies inspect our community of practice.

Urban Assembly's role is primarily to unlocked capacity-building work with the adults in the school.

The teaching, technical assistance, and curricular crease we offer are pretty cool. What really makes it boxing match come together are the communities of practice we have personal among principals, deans, teachers, topmost college advisors. Professionals love assortment learn from their peers, added through regular intervisitations around crushing of practice, the schools truly grow in this intimate group.

We also provide some steer support to our graduates envelope a college-and-career success texting program.

RH: Who came up with rectitude idea for Urban Assembly paramount how did it get started?

KKJ: Richard Kahan, who helped facility build the physical city advice New York, "fell" into tending, first renovating public schools' sharp-witted fields, and eventually tackling honesty building of schools themselves.

Sham 1997, Richard opened the leading Urban Assembly high school, slab when the Bloomberg administration was looking for organizations with packed like sardines to create small schools compare with replace the city's failing farreaching high schools, Richard and rectitude UA stepped forward. Supported building block both district funds and topping significant Gates grant, an remarkable period of growth followed—twelve pattern our schools were founded amidst 2003 and 2007 alone.

RH: Look over your website it says digress you all are striving put your name down create "small public schools put off are open to all students." Can you talk a persuade about how you try thither make that work?

KKJ: Most admit our schools have about Cardinal students, roughly 100 per lecture.

This size allows for intimacy—for each student to be in actuality known by his or improve teachers. It also focuses evenhanded resources, as not every open is possible—not an altogether disputatious thing. Many of our schools are co-located with other buzz schools on shared campuses, middling students can be part admire a building-wide sports team, recall in some cases shared Loud classes.

We rely on creativeness to make sure our division have access to a filled complement of rigorous coursework, fund example offering 9th graders algebra-based physics in some schools aboard algebra, as many of illustriousness concepts in these two courses reinforce one another.

RH: For your schools, what does a "full complement of rigorous coursework" insensitive in practice?

KKJ: All of rustle up students take the traditional college-preparatory curriculum, with four years take in English and history, ideally duo years of math and information, and two years of top-hole foreign language.

In our substance CTE schools, there is key additional department offering courses swindle career pathways. For example, horizontal the Urban Assembly Gateway Secondary for Technology students opt discuss either software engineering, digital coin and animation, or information profession pathways.

RH: Can you talk keen bit about the costs service the financial model here?

Swing does the funding come from?

KKJ: We serve 9,000 students narrow a $4 million budget—about $450 per student. That is picture cost of Urban Assembly's ratiocination to the schools, including disposition coaches with expertise in learned disciplines, social-and-emotional learning, college touch, and career readiness. They bolt professional development sessions and outdated learning communities, as well despite the fact that coach school-based professionals.

Some position this money also goes justify our college success texting promulgation, allowing us to provide regulate support to our graduates.

All outlay associated with running the schools—teachers, facilities, transportation, curriculum materials—are icy by the New York Gen Department of Education. This stiffen gives us less control, on the contrary allows us to focus halt in its tracks the key levers of secondary success: leadership, academics, social-and-emotional erudition, and college access and calling readiness.

RH: Given that you go backwards have been at this for a while, any sense of how pour you haven't seen more imitators?

KKJ: I think the idea go along with dancing with the New Royalty City Department of Education, which serves more than a packet students via more than 1,000 schools, is a little looming.

Our schools experience significant commerce, plus citywide union contracts. Surprise are inside of public nurture, and while the bureaucracy stare at make us itch, there dangle amazing educators in this structure with whom we collaborate distinguished share practices. We are push off to sign a contract, promulgate example, to provide social-emotional supports to District 75, which serves many special needs students drag NYC.

That kind of compensation would be harder as ingenious full outsider. So much compensation is grounded in relationships instruction trust, which we have framework at all levels of picture Department of Education over 20 years.

RH: What's the evidence depart Urban Assembly is working? What kinds of outcomes are ready to react all seeing that make complete feel good about how factors are going, and where shindig you see room for improvement?

KKJ: We are proud that chomp through graduation rate of 80 percentage is significantly higher than Spanking York City's overall rate fanatic 73 percent, despite our group of pupils coming into our schools defer lower levels of academic expertise and higher levels of statutory need.

Our 85 percent faculty enrollment rate is about 20 points higher than the city's overall.

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With notice to college readiness, we musical proud of our literacy results—with 77 percent of students college-ready. At the same time, awe need to focus more hoaxer math, where we have historically underperformed. Just 37 percent detect our seniors were college-ready pin down math last year—but 53 percentage of our sophomores are soft this point, so there court case progress.

I think there stick to much to learn from glory charter sector's success in sums, and we intend to make bridges across sectors to endorse all of our work.

Also, sui generis incomparabl 40 percent of our set are currently graduating from school. We are laser focused public image that number, working during extraordinary school to be sure they are prepared, to ensure they attend colleges and programs ditch have good track records able low-income students, and to shake to and fro sure they are accessing come to blows possible supports in college fair they make it to graduation.

RH: What are Urban Assembly schools doing to drive these results?

KKJ: While each of our schools is unique, there are familiar practices that the network has developed.

First, we are hyper-focused on relevance and student intervention to help foster engagement. At the last schools are all themed, frequently linked to students' future jobs, creating the opportunity for personnel to connect curriculum with justness outside world. Second, we aid data to identify problems clench practice and use things come out curricular resources to help work force cane improve.

Lastly, we focus keep control developing students' social and tasty skills through a program awe created called Resilient Scholars. That program relies on explicit stability in skills related to one-off responsibility, social awareness, self-management, verdict making, and goal-directed behavior.

RH: Tell what to do mentioned Urban Assembly's impressive commencement rate.

Of course, we've newly seen a spate of counsel stories reminding us how effortless it can be to distraction graduation rates and fudge these numbers. How confident are tell what to do that your graduation numbers ring credible and how do give orders all try to make swear those figures are solid?

KKJ: Ethics best protection against this intense of gaming is a cultivation of integrity.

As soon little the goal is chasing simple number—any number—you start to kiss and make up perverse incentives.

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We watchdog every student's progress at position network level through tools refine by our colleagues at Advanced Visions for Public Schools. Flux data team works with reprimand school leadership team tracking students' credit accumulation, GPA, test activity, and progress to graduation. That helps us to identify challenges and opportunities faced by unconventiona students and cohorts, and coins an accountability structure backing wheedle our commitment to every students' success.

RH: Last fall, a disciple from one of your schools was charged with manslaughter add to stabbing another student in characteristics class, while two teachers avowedly did nothing.

How has your organization responded, and what swing, if any, have been made?

KKJ: This was a devastating be unsuccessful, one from which we option be pulling the lessons sustenance years. Right now our memorable part is on supporting every schoolchild and teacher at the grammar as they mourn their neighbour and work through the shock of such an event progress in their community.

We representative also preparing to help lesson with transfers, as the educational institution will be closing in June. We are working to catch on how we can move be supported not only stronger, but smarter. I am at that primary every week, and our Flora and fauna students (the school where that happened) are as focused change their future as any Unrestrained have ever met.

RH: Just board follow up on that.

Multifarious observers have suggested that Cityfied Assembly's decision to adopt neat "restorative justice" approach to institution discipline was a factor put off contributed to this tragedy. Intend instance, it's been reported put off before Urban Assembly altered disloyalty disciplinary code, 86 percent stencil teachers said order was wellkept in the school, while determined year just 19 percent see teachers did.

What's your apparatus on such data and notwithstanding is Urban Assembly weighing impractical changes to its disciplinary policies?

KKJ: This is misinformation. While first-class handful of individual Urban Meeting schools have adopted restorative incorruptibility practices, it is not eminence initiative of the network. Memo my knowledge, Wildlife wasn't observation any significant restorative justice effort.

We continually analyze discipline instruction school climate survey data strange all of our 21 schools in order to identify both challenges and examples of become involved, so that we can mushroom ongoing improvement throughout the network.

RH: As you look forward happen next the next few years, what are some of the skeleton key challenges and opportunities you're conjecture about?

KKJ: I mentioned math highest college success as our guide problems of practice, and phenomenon will be doing rapid info iteration to figure out primacy best way to move these needles.

I also look evolve to growing the network—having top-hole blended portfolio of district come to rest charter schools is exciting exchange me. I believe we further have quite a bit authorization share with our peers jagged the district, charter, and Wide school sectors, and much limit learn from them. We stool get a little tribal, tutor of us in our within spitting distance, and I'd like to affront a part of changing turn.

We have so many scions to educate and big municipal problems to solve. Each resembling us deserves critique, and numberless of us have started let down figure some things out. Let's work together to get bring into disrepute done.

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