NPE Expands Board to Include Leading National Activists
The Network for Public Education, a national organization working to protect and improve public education recently elected four new members to their Board of Directors: Xian Barrett, Jitu Brown, Carol Corbett Burris, and Kennet Santana.Board President and Co-founder, Diane Ravitch says, “We are honored to have such distinguished and dedicated people join us in the fight to save public education.”
Xian Barrett is the Vice President of Engagement of New Voices Strategies. In 2009 he was chosen Teaching Ambassador Fellow by the Department of Education. In Chicago, Barrett founded a citywide youth-led social justice organization, brought students to New Orleans for service learning and organized sister-city events with Japanese schools. His philosophy of teaching is, “before the students lose interest in your instruction, ask them what they are passionate about and work with that—their learning belongs to them.” Xian Barrett is the kind of teacher that we all dream our children will have. Unfortunately, Barrett’s activism may have cost him his teaching job. In 2012, his job was eliminated through ‘redefinition.” He believes strongly that only by hearing and acting upon the voices of educators, parents and students can we improve our educational system and world.
Jitu Brown is the national director for the Journey for Justice Alliance, a network of 30 grassroots community based organizations in 23 cities across the country organizing for community driven school improvement. Born and raised in the Rosemoor neighborhood on the far south side of Chicago, Jitu Brown also teaches African-American history at St. Leonard’s Adult High School, the only accredited high school in the nation that exclusively serves people who have been formerly incarcerated. A believer in working locally and thinking globally, Jitu has taken youth leaders from KOCO to the United Nations, to the Passamaquoddy Native American reservation in Maine and to the UN Conference on Racism in South Africa. He has been published in the national education magazine Rethinking Schools, appeared in Ebony magazine and on several talk shows, including MSNBC’s The Ed Show, Al Jazeera America, WBEZ’s Community Voices, Democracy Now and CLTV’s Gerard McClendon Live.
Carol Corbett Burris has served as principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre School District in NY since 2000. Prior to becoming a principal, she was a teacher at both the middle and high school level. She received her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2010, she was named Educator of the Year by the School Administrators The Network For Public Education | NPE Expands Board to Include Leading National Activists: