Alex Shub (Chief Executive Officer)

Over the course of his 25 years in education, Alex led the design and development of more than 50 new schools, improving educational outcomes for more than 100,000 students.

As executive director of the Office of New Schools at the New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE), he led the identification and development of new school models and their founding principals; these new schools served as the primary tool for improving educational outcomes across the city during the Bloomberg/Klein administration. Alex has significant experience at the school level as well, first as a founding teacher and administrator at the Institute for Collaborative Education in Manhattan (which his two children later attended), and then as the founding principal of Essex Street Academy, one of the highest-performing open-enrollment high schools in New York City.

Following his tenure with the NYCDOE, Alex founded the School Empowerment Network (SEN) to share with other districts around the country the successful practices he helped develop. Alex holds an undergraduate degree from Brown University and a degree in educational administration from Teachers College, Columbia University.

Highlights

• Essex Street Academy graduated 93 percent of its first class, in contrast to a 38 percent graduation rate for Seward Park High School, the school it replaced, while serving a higher percentage of special-education students.
• Essex Street Academy consistently performed in the top 10 percent of schools citywide (peaking at #9) while under Alex’s leadership.
• In his role as executive director of the Office of New Schools, Alex directed the recruitment, selection and development of principals to open 124 new elementary, middle, and high schools. The schools opened under Shub’s tenure outperformed schools they replaced, peer schools serving similar students, the city average at the high school level, and the schools previously opened by the Bloomberg/Klein administration.
• School Empowerment Network has supported the launch of four independent charter schools in NYC and helped improve student performance in partnership schools in multiple districts across Massachusetts, Louisiana, Texas, and Michigan.