John Simmons
President, Strategic Learning Initiatives
John Simmons is the president of Strategic Learning Initiatives, a nonprofit organization serving public schools. For the past 35 years, he has worked in the field of education in the United States and abroad. In Chicago, he has worked with more than 40 public schools and has consulted with the CEO of the Chicago Public Schools. He helped establish a national research collaborative for looking at student work and helped design the Chicago Academy for School Leadership, established by the Chicago Principals and Administrators Association and the Board of Education. Simmons’ current work includes scaling up a successful model of whole school improvement for networks of neighborhood schools to accelerate student and adult learning. He has written or edited six books and more than 75 articles on education, management and economic development. His latest book, Breaking Through: Transforming Urban School Districts was published by Teachers College Press 2006. He has also been a faculty member at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, Princeton, and the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). Simmons received a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard University, where he graduated magna cum laude, and a doctorate in economics from Oxford University.