Jessica De Barros

Last Name	Residency Placement	Graduate School

Class	Current Organization	Graduate Degree

JESSICA DE BARROS

The Broad Residency Class of 2008-2010
Current Organization: Seattle Public Schools
M.P.A., University of Washington
B.A., Political Science, American University

“My mission is to dramatically reduce the achievement gap in urban public schools, and I believe The Broad Residency will provide me the opportunity to accomplish this. As a graduate of Seattle Public Schools, I believe it is time for me to directly apply my skills to turning the district around—with a focus on students of color and low-income students.”

Jessica de Barros leads performance management initiatives for Seattle Public Schools in the Office of Strateic Planning & Partnerships. Most recently, she redesigned the school improvement planning process to promote central office support of schools based on academic achievement. During her Residency, de Barros led the Seattle Public Schools in a process to select and implement a district-wide student assessment system in reading and math in order to more frequently monitor student progress and provide teachers with data to inform instruction. Prior to joining The Broad Residency, de Barros created education policy at the local, state and national levels. She started her own consulting business to assist school districts, national foundations, nonprofit organizations and government in developing policies to improve high school graduation and career readiness rates. Previously, de Barros served as the senior policy analyst in the Seattle mayor’s office for education, where she developed and managed policy for the Families and Education Levy, a 7 million-dollar investment in preschool, after-school, middle school, dropout prevention and school-based health programs. She worked with stakeholders to develop a new accountability system to track outcomes, measure progress and make program changes to improve results for low-income children and children of color. De Barros has also worked for the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington, Children’s Home Society of Washington, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Labor. De Barros holds a bachelor's degree in political science from American University and a master's of public administration from the University of Washington. De Barros participated in The Broad Residency in Urban Education Cohort 2008, serving her two-year Residency at Seattle Public Schools.