Denver Public Schools (DPS) has appointed Jennifer Stern as Executive Director of the Janus Education Alliance, a new initiative created to improve the recruitment, development and retention of high-performing teachers.
The hiring of Stern is a significant step in the development of the Janus Education Alliance, a public-private partnership launched this spring with a three-year, $3-million investment from Janus Capital Group. The company made its commitment, the largest corporate gift DPS ever received, after learning that nearly half of all urban teachers leave the profession within their first five years on the job, sometimes because they feel unsupported and unprepared for success.
Before coming to DPS, Stern was a Vice President at the Broomfield-based Charter School Growth Fund, a national venture philanthropy organization designed to provide financial and strategic resources to replicate high-quality charter schools serving students from low-income households. Prior to that, she worked for the New York City Department of Education, where she developed the orientation process for 7,000 new teachers and improved communication channels between teachers and the department of human resources.
To minimize teacher turnover, Stern will work with organizations that recruit young teachers and mid-career professionals interested in teaching and provide them an alternate route to enter the profession at DPS. In collaboration with educational partners, the Janus Education Alliance will offer teachers a wide range of new professional development opportunities, including a year-long classroom “residency” that enables new teachers to work with DPS “master” teachers and receive the real-life training needed to succeed in the classroom.
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