Alex Johnston, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN), a New Haven-based education reform advocacy group, has been appointed by Mayor John DeStefano, Jr. to serve on the New Haven Board of Education.

Johnston will fill the vacancy of Dr. Brian Perkins, finishing out the remainder of Dr. Perkin’s term ending September 15, 2010. Upon reappointment, Johnston will then serve a four-year term. Johnston’s first board activity will be a Strategic Planning Meeting on Oct. 17.

“I believe that the reform plan put on the table by Mayor DeStefano and Superintendent Mayo is a real opportunity to turn around New Haven’s public schools. The new teacher contract is a signal that the city’s plan has traction.” Johnston said. “But the reform plan is still in its early stages and many implementation challenges lie ahead. I will use my perch on the board of education to help ensure that this plan delivers the breakthrough gains in student achievement that we all want to see. The mayor asked me to join the board to use my voice to advance reform from within the system and I’m excited to be in the thick of change in ConnCAN’s backyard.

“I asked Alex Johnston to serve on the board in his capacity as an education reform advocate.” said DeStefano. “His knowledge base and passion for making sure every New Haven child gets access to a great public school will aid the school district’s reform agenda.”

Johnston, who has lived in New Haven for 10 years, will continue to act in his role as ConnCAN CEO, an organization he helped to launch in 2005, and which is now regarded as one of the nation’s leading state-level education reform organizations. In the five years since, he has led ConnCAN’s effort to advocate for state policies that will ensure every Connecticut child has access to a great public school.

In 2009, ConnCAN’s ‘Mind the Gaps’ campaign achieved three major successes: overhauling the state’s teacher certification rules, opening up stores of longitudinal student achievement data to the public, and funding the expansion of high-performing public charter schools.

Before helping to found ConnCAN, Alex Johnston directed operations at the New Haven Housing Authority, working as a member of the management team tasked with turning the agency around from the brink of receivership. A graduate of Harvard University, Alex received a D. Phil. in politics from Oxford’s Lincoln College on a Rhodes Scholarship, where he studied the impact of government funding on nonprofit service providers.

Alex has served on working groups for the Governor’s Early Childhood Cabinet and has been named to the state commission charged with developing Connecticut’s P-20 data system.
 

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The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) is an advocacy organization building a new movement of concerned Connecticut citizens working to create fundamental change in our education system. To learn more visit: www.conncan.org