Brian Sims

Brian Sims is Managing Director for Training Academies and Teacher Development at the Academy for Urban School Leadership (AUSL) in Chicago. AUSL is a non-profit that partners with Chicago Public Schools to turn around chronically under-performing schools through a comprehensive transformation process built on a foundation of specially-trained AUSL teachers. AUSL has been training new teachers in its innovative Urban Teacher Residency Program since 2002. In 2006 AUSL took over the first AUSL-managed “turnaround” school in Chicago. Since then AUSL has taken over a total of thirteen turnaround schools, which are averaging annual student achievement gains that are three-times greater than the district average. AUSL currently manages a total of 19 schools, including six training academies.

Brian joined AUSL in 2003 with responsibility for designing and launching AUSL’s first teacher training high school, which opened in the fall of 2004. He served as principal of the Chicago Academy High School from 2004-2007. Prior to joining AUSL, Brian was an assistant principal at an award-winning charter high school in San Francisco. Brian began his career in education as a middle and high school social studies and English teacher in Lafayette, Louisiana and Newark, New Jersey. He has Master’s degrees in History and Education from Stanford University and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. Brian received his Principal Certification from National-Louis University and is a graduate of New Leaders for New Schools.