Cliff Claflin

Chris “Cliff” Claflin has been in public education for over 20 years and has managed, developed, and supported dozens of principals, assistant principals, and aspiring school leaders. He has also led, developed, and supported teams in reaching strong outcomes for students as a principal for four different schools, and principal manager for nine different schools ranging from elementary to high school, across four different organizations. These various roles have allowed Cliff to learn from amazing colleagues and to develop key skills within leadership development, academics, talent, and operations for running successful schools and regions.

As a principal manager and executive director, he led and collaborated on the development of the principals and assistant principals in the region to become instructional and cultural leaders for their schools. He was responsible for coaching and developing leaders through modeling, walkthroughs, one-on-one coaching, curriculum internalization, and whole-group professional development. Application of instructional and coaching best practices led to strong growth in a struggling middle school moving from an F to a B under the state accountability rating system and in building on a strong foundation with another middle school to become A-rated. As a principal, he oversaw the growth of a 6-12 campus over the course of 8.5 years to become an exemplary campus and a National Blue Ribbon School.

Claflin has supervised or contributed to the launch of new schools in a variety of community settings, which has provided experience tackling problems and challenges in multiple contexts. He has overseen the launch of schools in refurbished and new facilities, allowing the schools to creatively prioritize funding toward the classroom. As an executive director, Cliff has overseen operating a middle school under a district partnership, which has involved working across different departments within the district, managing various stakeholder relationships, and maintaining commitment to outcomes, including exceeding the first year academic growth goals with the middle school attaining the highest academic rating it has in over six years.

Cliff earned his undergraduate degree from The George Washington University, a Masters Degree in Education from Sam Houston State University and a Masters Degree from the University of Michigan.