Barbic to TN

HUGE news from Tennessee, courtesy of Bill DeLoache:

 

I think this is STOP THE PRESSES news!  As you doubtless know, YES Prep is among the very top CMO's in the country.  We hope the Achievement School District will become for Tennessee what the Recovery School District is to Louisiana, and more. 

 

As you know, Kevin Huffman is Tennessee's new Commissioner of Education.  Huffman and Chris Barbic were both in the 1992 Teach for America Corps in Houston (along with Dave Levin and Mike Feinberg).   Now Huffman and Barbic will be together again, ready to make Tennessee one of the very top destinations for dynamic education reformers.   Congrats to Governor Haslam and Commissioner Huffman for this recruiting coup.

 

Here are various versions of the announcement:

http://blog.chron.com/schoolzone/2011/05/yes-charter-school-founder-headed-to-tennessee/

http://www.tn.gov/firsttothetop/TNASDSuperintendentjobdescription.pdf

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/may/09/texas-education-reformer-named-head-low-performing/

 

When you send out this news, you might consider sending along this video of the YES Prep college signing ceremony, which I find very, very inspiring:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yp3DMAHh9s 

 

And this from Ryan Dolibois at YES Prep:

 

There's been some relatively big news out of Houston today. Chris Barbic has been tapped by the new Tennessee Education Commissioner (TFA's Huffman) to be the founding Superintendent of the Achievement School District for the state. I have attached a press release (and included below) that highlights what this means for YES Prep and for the general education reform movement. We have deliberately stayed focused in Houston as a way to show how the best practices of a school system can be readily replicable and transferable to another region. Chris's appointment and our continued growth is a great proof point for both the strength of the YES Prep model and how it is possible for great ideas in public education to keep spreading. Our new President, Jason Bernal, has been part of YES Prep since we first opened and the leadership team represents a deep bench of educational experience both in and outside of YES Prep. I'd be happy to answer any other questions about this. We are excited to move forward as an organization and there will be more coming out of the YES Prep camp in the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can always find more on our blog atwww.yesprep.org/theanswer.