Areas of expertise

• Instructional coaching
• Design, implementation and scaling of personalized, competency-based learning
• School design support

Deion A. Jordan works with learning communities across the country to coach them in redesigning learning structures toward personalized, competency-based learning. He brings experience in rethinking and redesigning educational access and equity by prioritizing mastery-based assessments and community-connected projects that are diverse by design and rooted in place. Through his experiences, Deion brings a lens critical to transforming schools into autonomous learning communities where students are supported to fulfill their full potential.

We must recognize the importance of lifting educators of color as leaders in the re-imagination of schools.

Previously, Deion worked at Getting Smart where he served as the inaugural educator in residence, offering professional development and school design support, co-developing a comprehensive competency-based student performance framework for the XQ Super School Network, released at the 2022 Carnegie Foundation Summit. Prior to Getting Smart, Deion served as the director of competency-based learning at Crosstown High in Memphis, Tennessee, where he supported all instructional staff to scale personalized, competency-based practices.

Deion enjoys books about and discussions on philosophy, civil debates, jazz music and history, running and spending time with friends.

Featured work

Deion A. Jordan excels in helping partners understand the mindset shifts necessary for sustained education transformation. He helps them understand their role in implementing personalized, competency-based learning and what they can do to increase leader and educator capacity to sustain change.

How Leaders Can Create Real, Lasting Change at the Systems Level: Five considerations in shifting leadership mindsets for real, sustainable education transformation

Mindset Shifts for Sustainable Change: A growth mindset for education leaders creates space for innovation and systems change. Deion helps us understand how that could look.

Partnering with KnowledgeWorks: In this video below, Deion explains how KnowledgeWorks helps partners understand what it takes for true, sustainable systems transformation.