Ken Turner is an educational leader who has orchestrated successful change efforts in the United States and abroad. In the U.S., he provided leadership for an award-winning school, a high-performing district, a reform-minded state system of 800,000 students, and the fifth largest district in the nation. Outside the U.S., he led, designed, or operated schools in Africa and Asia and advised non-governmental organizations that span the globe. From 2015 until January 2022, Turner was associated with a pair of Las Vegas-based think tanks. From 2016-2018, he directed efforts for the State of New York to improve the quality and quantity of current and future principals through partnerships with districts, universities, and third-party providers. Funded by NYC-based Wallace Foundation, Turner served as Director of the Principal Preparation Project for the Regents Research Fund at the University of the State of New York. From 2019-2020, Turner was Assistant to the Senior Deputy Superintendent of the Denver Public Schools where he served as a thought partner for senior staff. Since 2020, he has provided support and advice to the Denver Public School Superintendent in the areas of strategic planning, policy governance, and change management.
From 2014-2015 Turner was funded by the Lincy Foundation that underwrites the Lincy Institute in Las Vegas. This institute is co-located with Brookings Mountain West Institute at University of Las Vegas, Nevada. Beginning in 2015, he served as Sr. Non-Resident Fellow at the Guinn Center for Policy Priorities in Vegas. His pro bono efforts at these think tanks focused on the purpose, force, and effect of performance management techniques on educational quality and efficiency. Specifically, he led efforts to design and implement a pay-for-performance program for an urban district and to develop value-to-cost ratios to gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of schools, programs, and departments.
From 2011-2014, Turner led efforts to apply performance management tools in a district of 316,000 students; this included guiding the launch of a growth model and School Performance Framework. A year and a half after joining Clark County School District, the graduation rate increased and scores rose in 11 of 14 areas of state assessment. This occurred despite a $550M reduction over a three-year period in an annual operating budget of $2.1B. In that time, the graduation rate improved from 59 to 71.5 percent. Turner also led and supported district efforts to: (a) reduce dis-proportionality by race/ethnicity with respect to expulsion; (b) develop models to anticipate facility failures that can halt teaching and learning or impact fund balance; (c) institute a process so schools gain flexibility in budget, staffing, and programming in return for greater accountability for improved student performance.
From 2007-2010, Turner was Deputy Commissioner of Education in Colorado. There he directed the revision of state standards for 13 subjects, guided reorganization of accreditation, and launched an academic growth model. Today, off-spring from that model can be found in 20 states. More importantly was the performance payoff. Between 2009 and 2011, no state improved significantly faster than Colorado in NAEP Math or NAEP Reading.
From 2000 to 2007, Turner was Deputy Superintendent in a district of 22,000 students. Efforts there led to an unparalleled return on investment. Academy School District 20 participated in the Trends in International Math and Science Study. The TIMSS science results for grade 8 students in the district were as high as those from highest scoring countries in the world. Yet the district had the lowest per pupil expenditures of any TIMSS participant
From 1991-1994, he was principal of a Littleton school that was featured in Measuring Up, The Peak Performance School, and The Restructuring Handbook. Newspapers frequently cited Mark Twain Elementary School for its performance.
Turner has played an important role in other efforts. In 2009, he served on a 12-member team that advised the National Governors’ Association on a national assessment system. In 2006, he was a founding trustee of AdvancED, an agency that accredits 30,000 schools in 70 nations (AdvancED is now known as Cognia). From 2008-2011, he served as the external educational expert on the Education Committee of International Baccalaureate Board of Governors and helped shape IB programs in 3,600 schools in 146 countries.
Turner’s work reflects his father’s influence. Raised in poverty, his father was last born in a family of 11 but the first to move beyond sixth grade. He left home at 12 because he wanted to stay in school. He lived with a farm family that let him continue schooling in exchange for chores. He worked through college and became a Bell Labs scientist.
Turner is convinced this work is about transforming lives. He believes success is measured by our ability to lift the performance of all but especially those who traditionally face the steepest climb. That means translating dreams into goals, goals into plans, plans into action, and action into results. While scaling and sustaining success takes teamwork and skill, Turner’s work is guided by one idea. The path is not defined by obstacles but by how we respond to them.
Turner earned his doctorate at Harvard in 1991. A year later, Harvard, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania named him recipient of the Goldie-Anna Trust Award for outstanding dissertation of the year in the field of education.