“Colorado faces historic challenges now – from reviving our economy to strengthening our schools to expanding access to health care,” stated Senator Michael Johnston at his swearing ceremony at the State Capitol. “Economic Development, job creation and education are my priorities,” he continued.
In a special Democratic Party election in May, he won the District 33 seat vacated by Senate President Peter Groff, who resigned to take a job with the Obama administration.
Johnston has a stellar record in the field of education program innovation. At age 34 he has made a journey from classroom teacher to program developer to principal to education policy advisor for Barack Obama’s campaign.
“Every school in America needs a Michael Johnston,” exclaimed Obama on a campaign visit to MESA, the Thornton school that Johnston co-founded. “We are here to celebrate MESA as an example of what is possible in education reform today.”
Peter Groff had this to say about Johnston: “He is one of the foremost thinkers in our country on education issues. He’s someone who doesn’t need my advice to get things done.”
A Colorado native, Johnston was a student from kindergarten through his senior year in an experimental program at Vail Mountain School. “Community service, as well as, a strong group spirit was integral parts of the education I received there,” he said. “The Martin Luther King Day holiday was a day of community service,” he continued. “Students had to help out at a soup kitchen or spend a day working with disabled skiers on the slopes.”
Johnston said that from an early age he was fascinated with Martin Luther King Jr.’s philosophy and values. “When I was about nine years old I memorized the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech,” he said.
Upon graduation, Johnston chose Yale University because the New Haven, Connecticut location offered more than the proverbial retreat into an ivory tower of ideas often associated with Ivy League colleges. “There were possibilities for outreach and community service,” he said. He began mentoring young boys in a housing project and established a soccer program. “Some of Yale athletes and coaches partnered in the program.”
In his senior year he applied to Teach for America, a national organization that places college graduates in schools around the country. “I wanted to go south because I was very interested in the Civil Rights Movement,” he said.
Johnston was excited when he was assigned to a Greenville, Mississippi high school. “For me Mississippi was a place where so many terrible things had happened, and yet there seemed to be so many courageous people,” he said. “I wanted to know what had changed and what progress had been made.
Greenville High School had an enrollment of 2,000 and lacked close interpersonal relations between teachers and students and even among students. “I worked at bridging that gap by organizing soccer and track teams,” he said. “I even bought a couple of chess boards and students slowly developed interest.
Johnston suggested that the school subdivide into smaller groups with a team of teachers assigned to each group. The idea was not only rejected, but the school was going to be merged with another school which would double the enrollment.
Johnston has documented his Greenville experiences in his book entitled ‘In the Deep Heart’s Core’. His reasons for leaving are reminiscent of Barack Obama’s reasons for giving up community organizing after two years. Obama believed that he could help impoverished people more from the political arena, and he decided to go to Harvard Law School.
Similarly, Johnston concluded that he could be more effective in a policymaking position. Therefore, at the end of his two year commitment in Mississippi, he enrolled in a one-year Masters Degree program in Education Policy at Harvard University. “I thought I could be more effective as a principal,” he said.
It was a productive year. Assisted by several classmates, including a former policy advisor to then Vice-President Al Gore, Johnston founded New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS), a national non-profit organization that recruits, prepares, and places outstanding urban education into positions of leadership. NLNS now operates in 10 cities throughout the United States.
Johnston continued his studies at Yale Law School, but he was not interested in becoming a trial lawyer. Rather, he wanted to use law in conjunction with educational reform efforts.
While at Yale he became an advisor to Tom Strickland’s campaign for a Colorado seat in the U.S. Senate. That was the first of a series of advisory positions in the political arena.
After finishing Yale Law School, Johnston moved home to Colorado and was hired as principal for the Joan Farley Academy and the Marvin Foote Youth Detention Center. Both schools serve youth in the custody of the Corrections or Human Services Departments.
In 2005 Johnston was hired by the Mapleton Public Schools for the kind of experiment he proposed in Mississippi. Mapleton decided to transform district schools into smaller units. Johnston was asked to lead the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA) in Thornton.
At MESA a team of five teachers is assigned to work with a group of no more than one hundred students. Each group is subdivided into “crews” of about 20 with a “crew leader,” that is a teacher. An integral part of the program is student-led conferences about any issue that comes up, such as behavior problems. Teachers prepare their own curriculums of which art is included.
MESA is based on the Expeditionary Learning model, which is related to the Outward Bound concept of the integration of outdoors activities into education. The school received funding from a Bill and Melinda Gates grant and was able to organize six-day mountain trips for the ninth and tenth grades. There are other outdoor activities.
Johnston says the school has had at once challenges and success. “In 2008 there was a dip in CSAP scores,” he said. “But on the other hand, in 2008 all 44 seniors were accepted to more than seventy colleges and universities across the country.”
In his new position as State Senator Johnston is especially concerned about economics and job creation for the 33rd District and for the state. He is pursuing the plan the Governor Bill Ritter has laid out for green energy development.
“Colorado is positioned to be the green energy leader of the country,” said Johnston. “But as we convert to green energy, we must make sure that these industries serve and employ the Denver communities that need them the most.”
Johnston lives in the Stapleton area with his wife, Courtney, who met in Mississippi where she was also a teacher. She is now a Deputy District Attorney in Denver. They have twin sons, Emmet and Seamus, who are toddlers.
