Chicago Education's Rising Stars

From Engineering to Education Reform
Broad Residency Graduate to Lead 12 Chicago High Schools

Mechanical engineers design complex systems from spacecrafts to medical devices; most people don't expect them to tackle education reform. But one Broad Residency alumna is putting those skills to work to improve high schools in the third-largest school district in the nation.

After graduating from North Carolina State University's mechanical engineering program, Akeshia Craven had to give up her dream of becoming an astronaut due to a medical condition which disqualified her from pursuing flight school in the Air Force. She spent the following years working for an engineering company, earning her MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and working for a consulting firm.

Craven Joins Chicago Public Schools and The Broad Residency
But now Akeshia is applying her engineering and private sector training at Chicago Public Schools (CPS), which educates about 408,000 students in over 660 schools. Shortly after joining CPS, she applied and was accepted to The Broad Residency program to "get the professional development needed to get through the learning curve quickly and build an amazing network," she said.

Now one of the school district's newest chief area officers, Akeshia is responsible for managing principals in more than 12 high schools with thousands of students. Although she didn't follow the traditional educator path, she brings extensive knowledge and experience in academic and instructional issues as the former senior project manager for CPS' instructional leadership council.

Using Data Analysis to Improve Academic Performance
"The work I'm doing now... the approach to problem solving and analytical way of thinking is possible because of my strong background in math and science," Akeshia said. "Data drives all of our decisions and helps us improve academic performance. Analytical skills definitely come into play. I feel like I was called to the work I'm doing now."

Part of Akeshia's goal is to help principals "maintain the momentum" and "build on wins" from CPS' Freshmen On-Track metric, which helps identify at-risk freshmen early enough to intervene with personalized improvement plans and improve academic performance.

"Principals are very capable and motivated to help teachers educate students," Akeshia said. "But there are lots of distracters, with so many things that happen at schools day to day. The challenge is to manage the issues while staying focused on academic performance."

Akeshia plans to spend a significant amount of time in schools to work with principals in determining their schools' strengths and weaknesses, based in large part on student data. She will coach principals on ways to form, motivate and manage effective school leadership teams and help them access resources and support needed from the central office. Despite the long days, she enjoys helping school leaders develop and immediately put into action strategies to improve academic performance. "Instruction is mission critical for students. It's the most exciting work in the school district, with the most immediate and impactful outcome for students," Akeshia said.

Supporting Principals to Ensure Student Success
With principal tenure ranging from a couple of years to a couple of decades, the level and type of training and experience of these leaders varies from school to school. Akeshia is helping assure all principals -- CEOs of their high schools -- understand the district-wide vision and focus on quality instruction, set appropriate academic goals and benchmark indicators, and manage other important school issues affecting students' education. From hiring and supervising dozens of employees to maintaining regular communications with parents, she provides guidance for principals on a long series of issues that can ultimately help or hurt the bottom line -- academic performance.

In a school district with about 85 percent of students coming from low-income households, "Education provides options and the opportunity to escape cycles of poverty. It raises the bar for what is possible," she added. "What our teachers do in the classroom every day will provide students access to better futures. That's why I'm here."