Jessica Strong,

Jessica Strong is starting her sixth year as the principal of Girls Prep Lower East Side Middle School in the East Village neighborhood of New York City. She has been an educator for fifteen years, and started her career as an AmeriCorps teacher in St. Petersburg, Florida.

In 2014 she became the 7th grade English teacher at Girls Prep, and in 2017 her students had the highest ELA proficiency in the network. She served as a teacher leader and Academic Director at Girls Prep before assuming the role of principal in 2018.

When asked why AMA is important and dear to her, here is what Jessica shared:

In 2020, I joined the inaugural cohort of the All Means All leadership development program in the midst of the pandemic, with a commitment to developing a truly inclusive school where "all" truly does mean "all". I focused on revamping hiring practices, supporting teachers with Universal Design for Learning, and fully integrating social/emotional learning and restorative practices into the school's culture. At the end of that year, I had an 82% staff retention rate, the highest in the school's tenure. My school demonstrated the highest levels of growth in reading and math of any school in her network, closing the growth differential for students with IEPs. And the percentage of classroom send outs and out of school suspensions dropped by over 60% in comparison to the last pre-pandemic school year. I am excited to be in the year two AMA cohort this year to build on the foundation laid in year one, and look forward to supporting other principals who are just starting their AMA journey.

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