David Ross

David joined the Partnership for 21st Century Learning as the Chief Strategy Officer in May of 2016 and was elevated to Chief Executive Officer a few months later. He held that post until the fall of 2018, when P21 was acquired. At P21, David was responsible for building collaborative partnerships among education, business, community and government leaders so that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a world where change is constant and learning never stops.

Formerly, David was the Senior Director for Partnerships and Outreach at the Buck Institute for Education for seven years before leaving BIE to launch the Lurner Group. David created and directed the National Faculty as well as the PBL World conference. He led BIE's enormous revenue increase from $60,000 to $6 million in a six-year period.
He is the co-author of the Project Based Learning Starter Kit.

At the Lurner Group, David helped non-profits go to scale and ed tech companies go to market. David led a multi-year initiative in South Korea.

He has worked extensively as a PBL trainer, program developer and curriculum coach for the North Carolina New Schools Project, the Ohio Resource Center, the Oracle Education Foundation, the National Academy Foundation and the New Technology Foundation.

David began his classroom career as a sixth-grade teacher in the Norwalk-La Mirada Unified School District near Los Angeles. David and his family left Southern California when he accepted a job to teach 11th grade U.S. history at New Technology High School in Napa, CA. It is a demonstration site for the United States Department of Education and the founding school in the New Technology Foundation network.

David is the author of Models of Inquiry, Explained, and co-author of the Project-Based Learning Starter Kit. He is a columnist for Getting Smart, where he writes on such topics as 21st century skills, the future of work, and project-based learning.

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