21k12

Jonathan Martin is Director of K12 Professional Learning for ACT Inc., and the principal of his educational consulting practice, JonathanEMartin Ed. Services, with a mission “to support educators, schools, districts, and associations in the work of strengthening 21st century teaching, learning, and assessing and in becoming ‘schools of the future.””

Among his recent and current work and affiliations are:

ACT Inc.  Director of K12 Consulting, now Professional Learning, designing, developing, delivering and managing school improvement consulting to schools and districts and related work.

ProExam and ACT Inc.: Consultant on Strategic Implementation for new noncognitive/ SEL/Character strengths assessment system, ACT Tessera.

MTC, Mastery Transcript Consortium: Consultant and Adviser.

Polytechnic School (CA), Randolph-Macon Academy (VA), Gann Academy (MA), Newton Country Day School (MA), Stratford Schools (CA), Malvern Prep (PA), The Hill School (PA),  St. Francis Episcopal Day School (TX), Detroit Country Day School (MI), and Laguna Blanca School (CA): extended engagements for educational program evaluation and design and academic program strategic planning.

Independent Curriculum Group. Keynoter/facilitator for the ICG Retreats for Academic Leaders, 2014-2018.

City Center for Collaborative Learning, Tucson AZ.  Board Chair for 3 school charter school network serving 350 students in grades 6-12.  (Volunteer)

Catlin Gabel School (OR), The Hill School (PA),  New Canaan Country School (CT), City Center for Collaborative Learning (AZ), Louise McGehee School (LA), Shlenker School (TX), Gunston School (MD):   Board Retreat Presenting and Facilitation

INDEX group: Principal author, The Mission Skills Assessment User’s Guide and Toolkit (64 page) and the in-development Guide to Benchmarking and Data Implementation.

Center for Curriculum Redesign; consultant to the Assessment Research committee.

NAIS: Principal author of the NAIS User’s Guide and Toolkit for the HSSSE: High School Survey of Student Engagement.

Blackbaud: “Private School Expert,” blogger, and author of of e-books on Rubrics Best Practices and Assessing On-Line Student Work.

Think Through Math: Author of the recent ebooks, Leading through Example and Transitioning to a Digital Curriculum. 

NWEA, Northwest Evaluation Association: Consultant on the OECD Test for Schools based on PISA.

HeadsUp Educational Consulting.  (Former NAIS President Pat Basset’s firm). Consultant.

Center for Curriculum Redesign.  Contributor.

EdLeader21 (2013-14) OCED Test for Schools (Based on PISA) Implementation toolkit, published April 2014 with funding from the Hewlett Foundation.

Educational Collaborators: Consultant to schools and districts on best practices in educational technology integration and ed.tech strategic planning.

Secondary School Admissions Test Board (Now Enrollment Management Association):   (2012-2015) Consultant and writer for the Think Tank on the Future of Admissions Assessment; Principal Author of its 2 Special Reports 2013 and 2014 on the Future of Assessment; Project Manager for its Noncognitive Admission Assessment Pilot Project; author of its 2015 Special Report: Sizing Up the Competition: Exploring the Landscape of New and Emerging Educational Models. 

Zachary Lehman, Hill School Headmaster, writes “Jonathan led an all-star team of consultants to help The Hill School navigate a year-long exploration of best practices in STEM as we consider an innovative and cutting-edge curricular approach and facility.  In addition to expertly facilitating our research, discussion, and prototyping, Jonathan helped us gain access to a variety of schools, university, and corporate sites that informed our consideration.  I consider Jonathan to be one of the thought leaders in 21st Century Educational practices and a first-rate facilitator.”

In addition to these projects, he regularly presents at conferences and provides workshops to schools, boards, and faculties around the country.  (For a list of upcoming and past presentations, click here).   Among the topics he regularly supports, coaches, and educates educators upon are Deeper Learning, Assessing Higher Order Thinking, Data-Informed Decision Making, Project-Based Learning (for which he has had National Faculty training with Buck Institute for Education), Creating Innovative Students,  and Non-Cognitive Assessment.

He has 15 years experience as an independent school principal/ head (1996-2012), most recently as Head of St. Gregory College Preparatory School in Tucson, Arizona, (2009-12). As Head of St. Gregory (now The Gregory School), he implemented next generation assessments such as NWEA MAP testing, HSSSE surveys, and the CWRA assessment; instituted a 1:1 laptop program for grades six to twelve; developed a new student report card model called the EGG: Essential Goals for Gregorians; trained teachers in 21st century Project-Based learning; and launched a new student advisory program.

Jonathan holds degrees from Harvard University (BA, Government, cum laude); Starr King School for the Ministry (M.Div., Unitarian ministry preparation); and the University of San Francisco School of Education (MA, Private School Administration). Jonathan is a graduate of the Sidwell Friends School (DC), and attended Milton Academy (MA) in middle school.

In 2008, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University where he researched and presented on the topic of how school-leaders can better facilitate curricular innovation by teachers.

He previously headed Saklan Valley School  (CA) (1999-2008 ) and Maybeck High School (CA) (1996-1999).  In the first stage of his educational career, he taught History, Social Studies, and English at Maybeck, and served in a role equivalent to Dean of Students there.

From 2010-12 he was a member of the board, and Program & Professional Development Chair,  of the Independent School Association of the Southwest (ISAS).  He was a contributor to the new National Association of Independent Schools publication A Strategic Imperative: A Guide to Becoming a School of the Future, and is cited as an authority on social media use by school-leaders in the recent Solution Tree publication, Essentials for Principals: Connecting and Communicating with Social Media and is recognized as an innovative school-leader in the recent book, Bringing Innovation to School by Suzie Boss.

Jonathan has blogged since 2008, primarily at his blog 21k12, and also for Connected Principals and edSocialMedia, and has been nominated for best educational administrator blogger in the international Edu-blogger awards.  In the national newsletter, the “Trustee Letter,” his blog was named “one of the best” Head of School blogs.   On multiple occasions, he has been an “official blogger” for major conferences, including the NAIS Annual Conference (2009) and the ISAS Biennial Teacher Conference (2010 & 2012).

During 2008-2009, Jonathan conducted what he called the “good high school project,” and visited 21 21st century high schools, shadowing students for a full school day at each and live-blogging throughout each visit.   For the “lessons learned” from that project, click here.

Jonathan speaks often on 21st century learning; he has presented recently, or will be presenting soon at:

• the Annual Conference of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) (four sessions, 2011; two sessions, 2012; two sessions, 2013; two sessions, 2014; three sessions, 2015; three sessions, 2016),
• the National Principal Conference 2017, on Using SEL Assessment for Continuous Improvement;
• the Annual Conference of TABS, The Association of Boarding Schools (one session, 2013; two sessions, 2014);
• the US Department of Education’s ONPE Annual Private School Leadership Conference (September 2010),
• the Independent School Association of the Southwest (ISAS) (Head’s Conference, 2009),
• the New York State Association of Independent Schools Education & Information Tech Conference  (keynote) (NEIT 2010),
• the North Carolina Association of Independent Schools Innovate Conference (keynote)  (2011),
• the Virginia Association of Independent Schools Technology Conference (keynote) (2011),
• the Canadian Association of Independent Schools (CAIS) Annual Head and Board Chairs Conference ( October, 2011)
• the Virginian Association of Independent Schools (VAIS) Winter Heads’ Conference (January, 2012)
• the Independent School Association of the Southwest (ISAS) Technology annual conference (keynote), 2012
• the Annual ISACS Conference, featured presenter, (November, 2012)
• the Colorado Association of Independent School Heads Conference (January, 2013)
• the first Online Education Symposium for Independent Schools (OESIS) (January, 2013)
• the Deeper Learning Network first annual conference, High Tech High, (April 2013)
• the Connecticut Private School Summit (keynote), (May 2013)
• the Pacific Northwest Association of Independent School (PNAIS) Head’s Meeting (May, 2013)
• the ISAS Division Head Conference (June 2013)
• OESIS East, October 2013,
• CAIS CT Annual Trustee Conference (Keynote) 2014,
• Independent Curriculum Group Retreat, (Keynote, ) 2014-2018.

About his presentation at NAIS (2012), Peter Gow wrote:

Jonathan gave “one of the most complete and concise arguments for and “how-to” presentations on authentic school change that I’ve ever heard….[Educators] need to hear what people like Jonathan have to say, and their schools and their students need the kind of teaching and learning experiences being promoted by Jonathan and a lot of other educators who have decided to create not-their-father’s schools.”  Peter Gow, Not Your Father’s School

Jonathan’s C.V. is available here: JonathanEMartinCV. 2016

For an archive of Jonathan’s graduation addresses over the past decade, click here.

Email Jonathan at jonathanemartin@gmail.com.

Follow Jonathan on Twitter: @JonathanEMartin.

A professional portfolio for Jonathan, including about a dozen letters of recommendation, can be found by clicking here.

Tim Bazemore, Head of Catlin Gabel School (OR) has written:

 “Jonathan recently led our faculty and our board in two days of the most stimulating, exciting and important professional development we have done in years.  Using data and interactive methods, Jonathan highlighted best practices in international education and assessment design principles, teaching faculty and trustees how to prepare the next generation of innovative thinkers.”