Amanda Gardner

Background

About Amanda Gardner

Amanda is the co-founder of Catalyst Public Schools a new and innovative network of charter schools launching in Kitsap County in the fall of 2020. Prior to launching Catalyst Amanda was the VP, Schools at Innovate Public Schools. In this role Amanda founded Innovate's World-Class Schools Fellowship, a year-long school design program helping to redesign and launch new, equity driven schools. Amanda also designed and launched Innovate's Charter School Entrepreneur-in-Residence program. Before coming to Innovate, Amanda was the founding Principal of UP Academy Charter School of Boston, a highly successful turnaround school committed to improving educational outcomes for all students. In the school’s founding year, students at UP had the highest student growth percentiles in middle school math in the entire state of Massachusetts and, in 2014, was named a Commendation School by the Massachusetts Department of Education, an accolade reserved for schools that are beating the odds with students. Amanda was also the Founding Principal of Boston Preparatory Charter Public School (BPCPS) in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. 100% of the school’s founding class earned proficient or advanced on all state required high school tests and students in the middle school have consistently outperformed students across the state in virtually all grade levels and content areas. In 2009, BPCPS was named as an EPIC Gold Gain school, a honor bestowed to 5 schools across the country.