Ted Thompson

Ted Thompson has been in education for 18 years. He has served in positions ranging from teacher to school district administrator. He has been committed to urban districts but continues to research trends to understand leadership actions and system behavior across all types of school district settings.  Currently Ted is the Vice President of Engagement & Implementation for the Network of Teaching Entrepreneurship, an education program non-profit. Prior to that, he served as Deputy Chief Academic Officer for the Baltimore City Public School System. In that capacity, he supervised principal supervisors and various offices throughout the school system. A signature initiative of his design was a Re-engagement Center and launching a system-wide strategy to create multiple pathways toward graduation for all students. He also designed the strategy for the district plan for the “My Brother’s Keepers Initiative”. Before coming to Baltimore, he served as Executive Director of Teaching and Learning for Syracuse City School District, where he oversaw all academic offices and designed strategies to support improved outcomes for students.  Key achievements were launching the districts first “Latin” school and introducing Twilight academies that lead to improved student attendance and graduation rates. He has also served at the Deputy Chief level in the District of Columbia Public Schools and the School District of Philadelphia. Ted started his professional career as a teacher in the Columbus City School District (Columbus, OH). He served as chair of the History department, faculty representative, and head track coach. He went on become a building administrator (AP and Principal levels), then developed and ran the district’s first charter school (serving dropouts, adjudicated youth and over-aged/under-credited students) as CAO; Ted also served as Principal of the Columbus Africentric Early College, the districts only K-12 school. Ted earned his Masters in Educational Administration and Doctorate in Educational Leadership and Organizational Management from Ashland University. His dissertation was entitled “African American Leadership: Understanding Historical Paradigms for Community Empowerment”. Ted earned his BA in History and Psychology from Cleveland State University. Ted currently serves on the National Charter Collaborative board.