About the National High School Center
Friends of the National High School Center
Naomi G. Housman
Naomi Housman has focused her career on serving public school systems in high poverty, urban communities, with a specific emphasis on secondary education. She currently serves as the executive director for secondary school reform for the School District of Philadelphia. In this capacity, she works directly with the Chief Academic Officer and leaders of community intermediary organizations to direct and plan the research and development of a five-year blueprint to transform secondary education system-wide. From 2002-2007, Ms. Housman served as the director for the National High School Alliance, housed at the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, DC. In this role, she facilitated a partnership of leading organizations committed to fostering high academic achievement, closing the achievement gap, and promoting civic and personal growth for all youth through strategic policy, practice, research, public awareness and engagement. During her eight-year tenure at IEL, Ms. Housman served in several other roles, including Director of the MetLife Task Force on Teacher Leadership in High Schools; Assistant Director, National Clearinghouse for Comprehensive School Reform; and, Assistant Director for Institutional Development.
Prior to her work in Philadelphia and Washington, Ms. Housman taught in innovative programs serving middle and high school students in Boston, and helped to develop and implement a pilot academic program for the Steppingstone Foundation to prepare low-income minority students from the district’s lowest performing schools for long-term academic success. She was also a program associate at Recruiting New Teachers, a national research and policy organization focused on developing a qualified and diverse teacher workforce in hard-to-staff schools. At RNT, Ms. Housman developed national outreach efforts and technical assistance materials to serve innovative pre-collegiate teacher recruitment and preparation programs at predominantly low-income, minority high schools.
Ms. Housman serves on several national advisory boards and has authored a variety of articles and reports focused on school reform policy and practice. She received her master's degree in education from Harvard University and a bachelor's degree in English from Emory University. She was a fellow in the 1999-2000 class of the IEL Education Policy Fellowship Program in Washington, DC.
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