Dr. Alan C. Jones has spent the past five decades working, learning and writing about the American education system.
A tireless advocate for the nation’s youth and public schools, he started his career in 1969 at DuSable Upper Grade Center in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago’s public schools were in crisis at that time and DuSable was especially vulnerable to the crime, gangs and violence that permeated the Chicago public school system in the 1970’s. At the time Dr. Jones started teaching at DuSable, no one thought he would make it past a week in a place with steel grates on the windows, colleagues and students who carried weapons on a daily basis and gun shots that rang out in the parking lot while teachers were walking to and from their cars. Dr. Jones ended up staying at DuSable for two years, long enough to write a book about the experience titled, “Students! Do Not Push Your Teacher Down the Stairs on Friday: A Teacher’s Notebook (Quadrangle Books, 1972).”
Dr. Jones continued his career at Thornton High School as a History Teacher and Activities Director and moved into administration as an Assistant Principal at Bremen High School while earning his M.A. in history and Ed.D in educational administration. Dr. Jones was a Principal at Community High School District 94 in West Chicago for seventeen years. In 1993, West Chicago was awarded the Blue Ribbon School of Excellence and was recognized as a 1995 School of Excellence by HISPANIC magazine.
Dr. Jones went on to teach graduate courses as a Tenured Professor in teaching and education at Saint Xavier in Chicago, Illinois until 2012. He is now an educational consultant for school districts throughout the United States and is the author of three books and one upcoming publication on administrative leadership.
In addition to his 1972 publication about DuSable, he has numerous articles in educational journals on instructional leadership and school reform along with three books: Becoming A Strong Instructional Leader: Saying No to Business as Usual (Teachers College Press, 2012), and Teaching Matters Most: A School Leader’s Guide to Improving Classroom Instruction (Corwin Books, 2012).
Dr. Jones lives in the Chicago suburbs with his wife, Linda, an educational leader in her own right and his most trusted advisor and sounding board. They have two adult children and three grandchildren, who also provide a window into the current educational experiences of kids in the age of Snapchat, Instagram, common core standards and no child left behind.
Alan C. Jones 