The NCUST Review: What Great Schools Do

Dr. Escobedo is currently the Executive Director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST); he also serves as a member of the State Board of Education (SBE) and as part of the Board of Directors for WestEd. Dr. Francisco Escobedo has been an educator for the better part of 30 years. From November 2010 until August 2021, he was the Superintendent of the Chula Vista Elementary School District (CVESD). Located in southern San Diego County, the District’s 46 schools serve over 29,400 students. In 2019, the Learning Policy Institute identified CVESD as one of seven “California Positive Outlier” districts for its superior academic scores.

Under Dr. Escobedo’s leadership, CVESD received the distinguished California Association for Bilingual Education’s Multiple Pathways to Biliteracy District Award for its implementation of 22 Dual Immersion Schools and California Department of Education’s Exemplary District of the Year Award 2018. He received the Chula Vista Chamber of Commerce’s Rindone Educator of the Year Award in 2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2019; and the California State Assembly’s 80th District Latino Leader Award in 2016. Recently, he earned NCUST’s 2020 Ronald Edmund Award for leadership in Urban Education.

Since 2001, Dr. Escobedo has served as an adjunct professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University (SDSU) and is currently a member of the doctoral faculty. He earned his undergraduate degree from Yale University; an M.A. degree from SDSU; and an Ed.D. from the University of California, San Diego, and SDSU. He is fluent in Spanish and serves as a co-chair on the State Superintendent’s Literacy Task Force.

Dr. Vincent Matthews served as the superintendent of the San Francisco Unified School District for the past five years before retiring in July 2022.
A native of San Francisco, Vincent Matthews completed his K-12 education as a student in the San Francisco Unified School District. Following graduation from JE McAteer High School, Matthews earned his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts in Educational Administration, and eventually his Doctorate in Education from San Francisco State University. Early in his career as an educator, he taught at George Washington Carver Elementary School and later served as an elementary principal, a high school assistant principal, and a middle school principal.
Before the San Francisco Board of Education selected Dr. Matthews to serve as superintendent, Matthews served the California Department of Education as the state-appointed superintendent of the Inglewood Unified School District. Prior to serving in Inglewood, Matthews led the San Jose Unified School District as superintendent for 6 years where he is credited with raising academic achievement, narrowing the achievement gap between Latino and white students, and passing landmark agreements with the San Jose teacher’s union. Prior to working in San Jose, he served as state-appointed superintendent for Oakland Unified. Dr. Matthews is currently an NCUST Executive Coach.

Principal Pantelidis is a two-time NCUST America’s Best Schools Award winner. Even though 87% of the students were Latino or Black, met low-income criteria, and none were admitted through selective processes, Patrick Henry School, in New York City’s East Harlem, continues to be one of the highest-performing schools in the state of New York. Find out in this episode of the NCUST Review what makes the difference and what great schools do.

Cara Riggs is an Omaha Public Schools transplant to San Diego California, after spending her whole personal and professional life there. A 30-year career in the Omaha Public Schools allowed Cara a great range of experience as a committed public school educator. She has experience as a high school English teacher and then enjoyed 8 years as their AP and Athletic Director. Following a 9 year role as principal of Beveridge Magnet Middle School, Cara’s last 6 years in OPS were spent as the principal of Omaha South High Magnet School where she and her team transformed it into a school of hope, great academic and graduation rate improvement, huge enrollment increases and a college-going institution with the highest freshman enrollment at the U-NE- Omaha. She is the author of HOPE in the Urban Schools: Love Stories.
Today, Cara proudly works as an Executive Coach for the National Center of Urban School Transformation. Her work with NCUST allows her to team with schools and leaders around the country as they focus on transforming their own schools into places where ALL kids are receiving equitable and excellent outcomes.

Dr. Joseph Johnson is the founding executive director of the National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) at the San Diego State University Research Foundation (SDSURF). While serving at NCUST, he was also a professor of Educational Leadership at San Diego State University (SDSU), then dean of the College of Education, and finally the university’s interim provost and senior vice president. Earlier in his career, he served as a teacher in Southeast San Diego, a school and district administrator in New Mexico, a state department official in both Texas and Ohio, a researcher at the University of Texas, and a Senior Executive Service Director at the US Department of Education where he led the nation’s largest federal elementary and secondary education programs.