51 Facts About Antwan Wilson

Antwan Wilson was born on 1972 and is an American teacher and school administrator.

Antwan Wilson was appointed the Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California, in 2014, and resigned effective February 2017.

Antwan Wilson has one younger brother and one younger sister.

Antwan Wilson grew up in Wichita and in Lincoln, Nebraska, and for most of this time his mother was single.

The family was very poor, and Antwan Wilson's mother had to work several jobs to support her children.

Antwan Wilson often lived in areas where drug use and drug dealing, violence, and gangs were common.

Antwan Wilson was, by his own admission, shy and somewhat insecure as a child.

Antwan Wilson attended local public schools in Wichita and Lincoln, and the family moved frequently so that the Wilson children could attend better schools.

Antwan Wilson graduated from Lincoln High School.

Antwan Wilson's mother broke her back in a workplace injury when he was a senior in high school.

Antwan Wilson decided to attend college at a local institution of higher learning so that he could remain at home and assist with her recovery while getting a degree.

Antwan Wilson attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history-social science education.

Antwan Wilson entered college intending to be a pre-law major, with the goal of attending law school and becoming a civil rights attorney.

Antwan Wilson began adding education classes, and in time switched his major.

In 2000, Antwan Wilson received his master's degree in educational leadership from Friends University in Wichita.

Antwan Wilson graduated in 2014, from Broad Superintendents Academy, an unaccredited private certification program established by billionaire Eli Broad to train urban educational administrators in leadership skills.

Antwan Wilson spent a year teaching in Raleigh, North Carolina, and then three years teaching at a high school in Wichita.

In 1999, Antwan Wilson accepted a job as an assistant principal at Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, but left after a year to take a position as assistant principal at Wichita South High School.

Antwan Wilson was appointed principal at Wichita's Pleasant Valley Middle School.

In 2005, Antwan Wilson accepted a position as principal at Montbello High School in Denver, Colorado.

Antwan Wilson initially implemented a program of strict discipline, in which students were not allowed to skip classes, hang out in hallways, or form large groups in hallways.

Later, Antwan Wilson encouraged faculty to focus on teaching basic skills, improving critical thinking, and using a more interactive teaching approach.

In 2008, Antwan Wilson was appointed High School Instructional Superintendent for the Denver Public Schools.

In 2014, Antwan Wilson was named the superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California.

Antwan Wilson was selected from a pool of 20 candidates, five of which were finalists for the position.

Antwan Wilson was given a four-year contract, with a start date of July 1,2014.

Antwan Wilson established a new teacher and leader evaluation system, and improved each school's autonomy regarding staffing and the adoption of teaching innovations.

Antwan Wilson centralized other operations, particularly in the area of finance.

Antwan Wilson began sending more money to each local school, and spending less on central administration.

Antwan Wilson hired Lance Jackson, chief operating officer for SGI Construction Management, to act as the school district's interim facilities manager in order to fill a position which had been empty for several years.

Antwan Wilson implemented a program at the five most troubled schools, replacing their principals, revamping the curriculum, and adding enrichment and extracurricular activities.

Antwan Wilson collaborated with a wide range of public education stakeholders to create "Oakland Promise", an initiative to triple in 10 years the number of Oakland public school students successfully entering college.

Antwan Wilson worked to integrate Oakland's charter schools more closely with the public school system.

In 2015, Antwan Wilson began an initiative to have the charter schools and public schools adopt the same curriculum, teaching methods, staff development, and administrative procedures.

Antwan Wilson's goal was to eliminate cherry picking by charter schools, and make charter school admissions more transparent.

Parents of special needs students accused Antwan Wilson of attempting to mainstream their children without providing adequate personnel or funds to mainstream teachers, thereby harming their children's health and education.

The use of racist epithets and the level of anger toward Antwan Wilson became so bad that African American clergy and local NAACP officials began appearing at school board meetings to help keep calm, encourage civility, and defend Antwan Wilson.

Antwan Wilson was strongly criticized for leaving the school district with a $30 million budget deficit.

Antwan Wilson defended the budget, arguing that he had balanced OUSD's budget every year in the past, and that asking for full funding of programs and making cuts later was a normal part of the budget process.

On November 21,2016, Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated Antwan Wilson to be the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools.

Bowser said Antwan Wilson was a "proven manager" who "was bold and strategic and open and transparent".

Antwan Wilson highlighted Wilson's ability to bring fiscal stability to the school district.

Antwan Wilson announced the same day that he was resigning as superintendent of the Oakland school district, effective in February 2017.

Antwan Wilson's nomination required approval by the Council of the District of Columbia.

Antwan Wilson advocated longer school days, tutoring, and other resources for struggling children.

Antwan Wilson's nomination was unanimously confirmed by the council on December 20, and his first day on the job was February 1,2017.

In November 2017, The Washington Post reported that Antwan Wilson had left the Oakland public school system in an unresolved financial crisis.

Carmelita Reyes, principal of Oakland International High School, co-chair of Oakland's Principals Advisory Committee, and a member of the Oakland School District Budget Advisory Committee, said that shortly after Antwan Wilson announced his resignation, all school district budgets in Oakland were frozen due to the emerging financial crisis.

On February 16,2018, Antwan Wilson admitted in an interview with WAMU, a local public radio station, that he asked then-Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles to exempt his daughter from the admissions lottery and immediately transfer her from Duke Ellington School of the Arts to Woodrow Antwan Wilson High School.

Antwan Wilson married his wife, Tresa, while working in Wichita from 2000 to 2003.

Antwan Wilson is known for waking every day at 3 AM to exercise, meditate, and prepare for the day.