Shawn Joseph named Prince George’s County Public Schools’ new superintendent

Shawn Joseph, Prince George’s County Public Schools’ interim superintendent, was selected on Monday to continue leading the state’s second-largest school system.

Prince George’s County Executive Aisha Braveboy named Joseph interim superintendent last summer to replace Millard House II, who resigned from his role following a vote of no confidence from the county’s teachers union.

While serving in the interim role, Joseph took an unpaid leave from Howard University, where he worked as an assistant professor in the educational leadership and policy studies department. His experience includes a three-year stint as the superintendent of Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools before the school board ended his contract early.

“This is the right leadership team at the right time to usher in a new era of excellence,” Braveboy said in a news release last summer announcing Joseph’s interim appointment.

Joseph will continue overseeing a district that has struggled to catch up to state averages in academic achievement. Three in 10 kids aren’t regularly showing up to school, and enrollment is projected to decline.

Joseph, who started the interim position on July 1 with a salary of $365,000, brings consistency to a system known for conflict. In announcing her retirement in 2023, former Superintendent Monica Goldson referenced divisions within the county school board that she said blocked progress.

“The continued political infighting among certain Board Members demonstrates a misalignment in the vision for the children of this county,” she wrote.

At the time of his initial appointment, Joseph, who served as the county’s deputy superintendent for teaching and learning from 2014 to 2016, said he would be “relentless about results.”

“Prince George’s County I believe should be and can be a place where equity and excellence just are married and we see students excelling,” he said at a news conference last year. “We’ve got all the ingredients to be one of the fastest-improving school systems in the nation.”

What the community wants

There was a nationwide search for candidates who could meet the community’s needs — and it was challenging.

Braveboy’s office partnered with PoliHire, an executive search firm based in Washington, D.C., to search for the system’s next superintendent and survey the community on what they saw as the district’s strengths, challenges and what they were looking for in a leader.

“In my 30-plus years of recruiting, I’ve not seen a market in any point in time that you have so few individuals interested in leadership, and that is because of the visceral nature of communities, the engagement, the politics,” Kenyatta Uzzell, the founder and president of PoliHire, said at a community listening session in May. “Your strongest leaders no longer want to take those roles because they can’t be the practitioners.”

The firm’s report, based on more than 4,000 responses from students, guardians, teachers, administrators and support staff, found that people generally feel safe in schools, are confident teachers are helping students learn, and are pleased with classroom technology.

But it also laid out challenges, including poorly maintained facilities, uncertainty that students are ready for life after graduation, and doubt that the school system is fiscally responsible.

Survey respondents asked that the next leader be a strong communicator who can improve student achievement, school funding, community trust in schools, safety, student behavior, teacher retention and special education.

Ultimately, 26 candidates applied for the position, Uzzell said. Of those, five were interviewed by the superintendent search committee, which includes a state Board of Education member selected by the state superintendent and two county residents chosen by the governor.

The committee narrowed that pool to three finalists. From there, the county executive is responsible for selecting the superintendent, then the county Board of Education formally appoints the superintendent and negotiates a contract. The state superintendent approves the final appointment.

Braveboy did not release the names of the three finalists. During a listening session in May, she referenced a letter from the search committee stating that the finalists’ information remained confidential.

“That, I know, is not exactly how we would all want it to be, but that is the process that the state came up with,” Braveboy said.

Some critics questioned the transparency of the process and circulated a petition calling for the release of the superintendent finalists’ names and for community forums with each candidate so families and other stakeholders could meet potential new leaders.

“The community that was asked to shape this search is being shut out of it,” reads the petition, which had nearly 500 signatures by the end of May.

This isn’t the first time community members have expressed concerns.

As the school board was considering Joseph’s interim appointment last year, more than 500 people signed a petition asking them to pause. They cited several concerns about his tenure at Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, including criticism of his handling of sexual misconduct allegations. His contract there ended after the school board voted 5-3 to terminate it early.

At a news conference last year at the Prince George’s County school district’s headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Joseph denied any wrongdoing during his tenure in Nashville.

He said he improved reading scores, expanded gifted and talented instruction, reduced suspensions, and increased investment in mental health support. He was also the district’s first Black superintendent.

“I brought a lot of change, which brought a lot of noise from those protecting the status quo that were not used to seeing a Black man exercise leadership in a dynamic way,” Joseph said, drawing applause. “I did not come to Prince George’s County to relive old battles. I actually came to build a brighter future.”

Focusing on achievement

In a school system where more than 1 in 4 students are learning English — the highest share in the state — leaders have focused on student growth.

Although math proficiency remains below state averages, there has been steady improvement. The most recent statewide Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program shows that third graders in Prince George’s County are getting better at math.

Their math scores rose 3.3 percentage points, exceeding the 2-percentage-point gain statewide. Still, about 25% are considered proficient, compared to 42% statewide.

Since 2022, districtwide English proficiency has made slow growth, though only 37% of third graders are proficient, compared to half of those in the state.

“Rather than fixating on gaps, we must focus on achievement, asking whether students are growing at the pace they deserve and how we accelerate that growth,” Joseph said in an August news release.

Joseph, who is originally from Central Islip, New York, holds a doctoral degree in educational administration and policy studies from George Washington University. He earned his bachelor’s degree in English education from Lincoln University and his master’s in reading education from the Johns Hopkins University.

While studying at Lincoln, Joseph said he met a student who could not read. At the time, he wondered: “How do we put people on the moon and not teach children how to read in this country?”

That experience inspired him to switch his major from biology to English education and later become an English teacher. He also held roles as a reading specialist and eventually became Maryland’s Middle School Principal of the Year.

He then served as an assistant principal, principal and district administrator in Montgomery County Public Schools before becoming superintendent in Seaford, Delaware, and later Nashville.