Justin Testerman

Chief operating officer,
Tennessee Charter School Incubator

Degree: MPP, 1998
Location: Nashville, TN

Justin Testerman (MPP ’98) is the chief operating officer for the Tennessee Charter School Incubator (TCSI). Launched in 2009, the incubator is a leadership development program that supports high-quality public charter schools in Memphis and Nashville in order to close the education achievement gap in Tennessee. Testerman previously was a division director at Volunteers of America, where he created the nation’s first nonprofit charter authorizing program.

Why did you choose the Humphrey School?
I participated in Teach for America and was interested in learning more about education policy on a systems level. While reading Joe Nathan’s book on charter schools (Charter Schools: Creating Hope and Opportunity for American Education) I learned about Minnesota’s pioneering role in creating the first charter schools and I realized Minnesota would be a great place to learn about education policy. When I was deciding on which graduate school to attend, I visited the Humphrey School and John Brandl, the interim dean at the time, actually sat down with me for an hour-and-a-half impromptu meeting. I was impressed with how generous he was with his time.

What experience did you have at the Humphrey School that influenced your career trajectory?
During my first semester, I took an Education Policy class. For a class project, I had to interview a person involved in education policy, so I contacted Susan Heegaard who was the director of governmental relations for the Minnesota Department of Education. The interview went well, and she asked me if I would be interested in doing an internship with the department. Shortly after the interview, I was offered a spring internship in the charter school office. At end of the school year, the head of the charter school office retired unexpectedly and I was asked if I wanted to work at the department full time. My experience working in the Minnesota Department of Education was a great launching point for my career.

What is the Humphrey alumni network like?
While I was working as a division director at Volunteers of America, I hired three Humphrey School graduates. The Humphrey School was a source of talent for me—when I was looking to fill a position, I always looked to Humphrey School alumni because I knew they exhibited high-quality skills.

Why is it important to invest resources in charter schools?
Minnesota was the pioneering force in the charter school movement, and there was a real focus on school ‘choice.’ However, this focus on choice sometimes overrode a focus on the quality of schools. There was not a lot of thought about how to give the people leading these schools proper training, tools, and support. It is exciting to see the work of organizations like Charter School Partners starting to put strong focus in charters schools in Minnesota. Tennessee is relatively new to the charter school scene, and I saw the opportunity to work at TCSI as a way to help seed a new market. The first two charter schools started by TCSI in Tennessee opened in Nashville last year and are among the highest-performing middle schools in the city, even outperforming the wealthiest school district in math. At TCSI, we want to train a new generation of leaders to start schools that prove the possible—that zip code does not have to determine destiny.

November 29, 2012