www.bobpearlman.org sharing best practices and strategies in school reform

Bob Pearlman

Bob Pearlman has been a key leader of educational reform efforts nationally in a unique 40-year career as a teacher, Co-Director of Computer Education, teacher union leader and negotiator, Foundation President, Director of Education and Workforce Development, and Director of Strategic Planning for the nation's largest network of innovative 21st Century Schools.

Pearlman’s experience and expertise includes Whole District Reform, New School Development, Business-Education Partnerships and coalitions, School-to-Career and Workforce Development, Union—School District Negotiations, School Restructuring and Technology, Project-Based Learning, Professional Development, Educational Finance, and School-site Assessment and Accountability.

Bob is currently a strategy consultant for 21st Century school and district development. Bob served from 2002-2009 as the Director of Strategic Planning for the New Technology Foundation in Napa, CA, a school development organization which supports the replication of the New Technology 21st Century High School model in more than 50 communities across the United States. Pearlman consults and speaks widely in the US and the UK on 21st Century Learning.

Additionally Pearlman is a Strategy Consultant for education reform, assisting key reform initiatives around the country. Among these are Sacramento's e21 high school reform initiative, and LINC 2 the Future, Boston's new 5-year technology plan for the schools and the community. He is the former President of the Autodesk Foundation (1996-2000) and former Director of Education and Workforce Development at Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network.

Pearlman previously served as Coordinator of Educational Reform Initiatives for the Boston Teachers Union.  As the former National Consultant on Educational Technology for the American Federation of Teachers and as a founder of the Co-NECT School New American School Design Team, Pearlman has been a pioneer in designing new schools, integrating project-based learning, work-based learning, and technology into the schools, and in training teachers, administrators, and parents in the application of new technologies and their role in restructuring schools.

Pearlman is the author of many articles on 21st Century Learning, including Making 21st Century Schools, (Educational Technology, September-October 2009), "New Skills For A New Century" (Edutopia, June 2006), and "21st Century Learning in Schools – A Case Study of New Technology High School in Napa, CA", (published in New Directions for Youth Development, Summer 2006 Special Issue: The Case for Twenty-First Century Learning).

Pearlman has been a leader in building coalition organizations that bring together educators, business, labor, and community leaders to support education reform. Key coalition organizations have included the Bay Area School-to-Career Action Network (BaySCAN), the California School-to-Career Action Network (CalSCAN), Business and Education for Schools and Technology (B.E.S.T.), and the Boston Compact. The National Alliance of Business named BaySCAN its 1998 Local Coalition of the Year.

Bob Pearlman can be reached at http://www.bobpearlman.org, bobpearlman@mindspring.com, and 520-881-9965.