Mark Roosevelt, a longtime education advocate and former state representative, has held the post of superintendent of Pittsburgh Public Schools since 2005. An Oct. 13 public meeting will be streamed live.
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – October 6, 2010 – Antioch College is pleased to announce that Pittsburgh Public Schools Superintendent Mark Roosevelt, one of two finalists for the position of college president, has accepted an invitation to visit the campus Oct. 13-14 for tours, a public forum, and meetings with staff and college leaders. The public forum will be held at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 13 in South Hall's Herndon Gallery.
A Presidential Search Committee, led by Board Member Frances Degen Horowitz (class of '54), and search firm Isaacson, Miller vetted numerous applicants and nominees to the post. Two candidates were invited to campus, but a second candidate withdrew late in the process for personal reasons.
"We are all excited to have traveled this far and to see the talented and experienced people who have come before us," said Lee Morgan, chair of the Antioch College Board of Trustees. "We have great hopes for the successful conclusion of our search for our next president. Our work will continue until we have accomplished this aim."
Roosevelt holds a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School and a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College. He is a graduate of the Broad Urban Superintendent's Academy, an intensive executive management program designed to prepare educators and professionals from other fields to lead large city school systems. He has taught political science at Brandeis University, where he was also the director of the Gordon Public Policy Center, and currently teaches a course on the intersection of American history and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz Graduate School of Public Policy.
As a Massachusetts state representative, Roosevelt chaired the Education Committee, where he guided passage of the Education Reform Act of 1993, a landmark legislation providing the equitable resources and accountability measures necessary for school improvement. Roosevelt was also the lead sponsor of the 1989 Massachusetts Gay Rights Bill. In 1994, Roosevelt was the Democratic nominee for governor of Massachusetts.
After leading Massachusetts Biomedical Initiatives, a publicly and privately funded nonprofit economic development agency, and acting as the managing director for the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Roosevelt was appointed the superintendent of the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) in August of 2005.
Since that time he has pursued an aggressive reform agenda called "Excellence for All." Four years later, the district has a comprehensive plan to maximize effective teaching that is one of only four such efforts to win support through a highly competitive $40 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; a nationally recognized program to recruit, train, support and compensate principals as instructional leaders; a new more rigorous curriculum; and several new school models, including eight "Accelerated Learning Academies" for many of the district's most underserved students.
He is also the founder of The Pittsburgh Promise, a ground-breaking initiative that has already raised $150 million to guarantee as much as $10,000 per year in college scholarship dollars for PPS graduates who earn a GPA of 2.5 or better. The Promise now provides scholarships to over 1800 PPS graduates from the 2008 and 2009 graduating classes.
The Board welcomes and encourages Antioch College alumni to provide feedback on Mr. Roosevelt following the Oct. 13 meeting in Yellow Springs. To provide feedback, go to http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Antioch-College-presidential-feedback.
About Antioch College
Originally founded in 1850, Antioch College redefined liberal arts education in the 20th century by initiating an entrepreneurial and experiential curriculum through the development of its hallmark cooperative work program. Many of the now-common elements of today's liberal arts education – self-designed majors, study abroad, interdisciplinary study, and portfolio evaluation – had an early start at Antioch College. Ownership of Antioch College was transferred from Antioch University to the Antioch College Continuation Corporation in September 2009. The newly independent College will admit its first class in the fall of 2011.
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – November 1, 2010 – More than 300 people came out to the Antioch College Resurrection Party October 29 to celebrate volunteer contributions during the first year of independence.
YELLOW SPRINGS, Ohio – October 13, 2010 –