Don Shalvey EdD ’95, deputy director at the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation and co-founder and board chair of Aspire Public Schools, was announced as the 2012 Commencement Speaker for the USC Rossier School of Education Master’s Commencement Ceremony in May.
Widely recognized as a leader in public school reform and the charter school movement, Shalvey has more than 40 years in public education and has led a number of entrepreneurial initiatives during his career.
In 1992, during his tenure as superintendent of San Carlos School District, Shalvey sponsored the first charter school in the state of California. In 1998, he and Netflix founder Reed Hastings co-founded Californians for Public School Excellence, a grassroots organization that led to the passage of the Charter Schools Act of 1998, lifting the cap on the number of charter schools in the state.
Aspire Public Schools opened its first school in 1999 and has since grown to 34 schools in some of California’s most underserved communities, making it one of the nation’s five largest charter management organizations. Located in urban neighborhoods where college graduation rates are typically below five percent, Aspire schools rival the most elite private schools and have been noted for their small size, longer school days, and commitment to rigorous assessment and parental involvement. In both 2010 and 2011, 100 percent of Aspire graduating seniors were accepted to four-year colleges and universities.
In 2009, the Bill Melinda Gates Foundation appointed Shalvey to the foundation's education team to explore how the Aspire system could be applied to other school districts across the country in order to increase paltry national high school graduation rates and a troubling lack of college readiness among graduates. In his current position as deputy director of the U.S. Programs Education initiative, Shalvey leads grant making for states, districts and networks throughout the United States.
Shalvey is a frequent advisor to policymakers, practitioners and authorizers of charter schools across the nation. He currently serves as chair of the California Commission for Special Education, and is a board member for a number of nonprofit organizations.
In 2002, the prestigious Ashoka Foundation recognized him as a Fellow for his outstanding work as a social entrepreneur. More recently, he was given the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award for advancing the quality of life for Californians. In June 2009, he was elected to the Charter School Hall of Fame by the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
The USC Rossier School of Education 2012 Master’s Commencement Ceremony will be held on Friday, May 11, 2012, from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Howard Jones Field.
