DR. JERRY D. WEAST
Former Superintendent
Montgomery County Public Schools
Dr. Jerry D. Weast is the former Superintendent of the Montgomery County Public Schools, the largest and most diverse school system in Maryland and the 16th largest district in the nation. Appointed to the position in 1999 and reappointed in 2003 and 2007, Dr. Weast served during a period of great demographic change in Montgomery County, and kept the focus on narrowing the achievement gap for the district’s nearly 145,000 students. Under his leadership, Montgomery County Public Schools earned national recognition in consecutive years for achieving the highest student graduation rate among the nation’s 50 largest school systems and consistently led the nation in having the most high schools among the nation’s top 100 high schools as identified by Newsweek magazine. All the district’s high schools are annually ranked in the top 3% of all high schools in the nation.
Since 2004, Dr. Weast has led an inclusive team of school system and union leaders, working together with Harvard University researchers and leaders from prominent school systems across the nation in the Public Education Leadership Project, to study school system governance. The managerial excellence he has overseen led to Montgomery County Public Schools’ receipt of the U.S. Senate/Maryland Productivity Award in 2005. In addition, the school system was a 2006 Finalist for a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and is a finalist again in 2010. The school district also is a 2010 Finalist for the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education. The systemic reforms Dr. Weast has undertaken have resulted in improved academic outcomes for Montgomery County’s children and have been chronicled in a book published by Harvard Education Press in 2009, Leading for Equity: The Pursuit of Excellence in Montgomery County Public Schools and in numerous Harvard Business School case studies.
Dr. Weast has presented extensively at conferences and seminars, to educators, clinicians, professional negotiators, Federal Aviation Administration managers, executives of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, education journalists, and technology professionals, on topics such as school reform, early childhood education, technology in education, strategic planning, effective leadership, community collaboration, business partnerships, school-union partnerships, professional development, and crisis management. Dr. Weast has led in developing collaborative relationships with employee organizations, which have resulted in ground-breaking professional development programs and employee evaluation systems for professional, support, and administrative personnel. These initiatives have earned national recognition.
Internationally, Dr. Weast has addressed members of the European Council of International Schools, has undertaken Fulbright-funded travel to Northern Ireland to consult with school administrators on school integration, has twice been invited to the People’s Republic of China, has spoken to professional educators in several Near and Middle Eastern countries, and has been invited by Japan’s Ministry of Education to speak in Japan on the topic of school reform. Dr. Weast serves on the boards of various policy, educational, business and community organizations, including the Committee for Economic Development, Peabody College (Vanderbilt University) National Ed.D. Advisory Board, and Junior Achievement Worldwide Education Group.
Dr. Weast was named the Maryland Superintendent of the Year in 2003 and was one of the final four candidates for consideration as the National Superintendent of the Year. He is one of few superintendents to have won the state superintendent of the year award in two different states. Dr. Weast has served as superintendent for 34 years, overseeing eight school districts in five states.
Dr. Weast was appointed a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Graduate School of Duke University. He holds an Ed.S. Degree in General Administration from Pittsburg State University (Kansas), and an Ed.D. in Educational Administration from Oklahoma State University, where he was named to the Hall of Fame in the College of Education.
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