Rudy Crew

Former Superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools and former Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools, Dr. Rudy Crew has made it his mission to overhaul and strengthen the educational system in America. From the podium he draws on his 25 years as a professional educator to galvanize teachers and students to reach for the stars - and grasp them.

A stern but caring taskmaster, Rudy's guiding principle has always been to provide the means by which students of all backgrounds can achieve high standards-a principle that informs each of his lectures. To this end, in the course of his rich and varied career Rudy has initiated dozens of reforms, including adoption of curriculum standards for all schools, elimination of tenure for principals, and school-based budgeting. For his efforts he has been honored with numerous awards, including the NAACP Educational Leadership Award, the Arthur Ashe Leadership Award, and the Association of California School Administrators Administrator of the Year Award.

On the stage - as in the classroom - Rudy's genuine love of teaching makes him an extraordinarily popular figure. He has long believed in passing on to others the opportunities that have been afforded him throughout his childhood and his adult life - for which he credits a father who encouraged him to excel. As the first male in his family to go to college, and among the first black students to integrate his undergraduate alma mater, Babson College, Rudy is also a passionate and engaging speaker on the importance of education among the poor, and of diversity in the educational system.

Advance Preview of Dr. Crew's Revolutionary Book on Education

Only Connect

The global economy isn't coming. It's here. And America is failing to meet the challenges a flat world presents. Undereducated and under motivated, our workforce is increasingly unable to compete with the ambitions of countries such as China and India, putting our nation's continued prosperity at risk. Dr. Rudy Crew, former Superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public School system and former chancellor of New York City schools, believes there is a solution, but we won't find in a boardroom; we'll find it in the classrooms of our local public schools. His new book, Only Connect calls on America to do more than simply leave no child behind. Because a thriving system of public education benefits every person in this nation, we need a national commitment to establishing standards of excellence and equity in all our public schools. Good schools, though, are more than the product of government policy or concerned parents. Dr. Crew lays out what each of us must demand from our government, our school systems, our classrooms and our families in order to help our schools create a new generation of Americans able and willing to function in the workplace, at home, and as citizens of our nation. With public schools as the anchors of a new community spirit, we can heal the divides of race, politics and class, and recreate the shared sense of America that has bound this nation together.