Mayor Muriel Bowser announced Oakland Unified School District Superintendent Antwan Wilson will be D.C.'s new public schools chancellor Tuesday.
Wilson was selected, in part, for his success in raising achievement scores, sources told News4's Tom Sherwood and Mark Segraves on Monday.
Bowser made her official announcement Tuesday morning, after News4 broke the story online Monday evening. She welcomed Wilson and his wife, Teresa, to "the best city in the world" during her press conference.
"As superintendent [in Oakland], he has focused on managing and improving a complex organization, championing important messages to improve teaching and learning, increasing high school graduation rates, and improving social and emotional learning in special education processes," Bowser said.
She said he also negotiated increases in teacher pay and per-student funding in Oakland.
"The District is well-positioned to continue moving forward on behalf of young people," Wilson said Tuesday. "....I believe it's extremely important to make sure that schools are places that educate young people and prepare them for success, not just academic success, but success as people."
He recalled his own childhood, when he was raised by "a single parent, a teenage parent, where we had to move year after year after year."
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"There are so many reasons that families move, and life happens," he said. "It's really important that there is a system that picks families up and really makes a difference for young people, so they know there is a future ahead of them and there's a reason to come to school."
According to the Oakland Unified School District website, Wilson previously served as assistant superintendent for post-secondary readiness in Denver Public Schools for six years, where he led Denver's Middle, High, and Intensive Pathway Schools. He arrived in Oakland in April 2015.
