This week, we are proud to profile Julie Jackson, the extraordinary Co-Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Schools.
“How can you lead a school at the highest level when you’re not a strong teacher?”
For Julie Jackson, the answer is clear: You can’t. That belief has become foundational to how she grew her career and how Uncommon Schools develops its educators.
As Co-Chief Executive Officer of Uncommon Schools, Julie oversees 53 high-performing charter schools serving more than 20,000 students across New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. She is also the first Black CEO in the network’s 25-year history — a milestone that carries both pride and purpose.
Her leadership style is unmistakable: equal parts coach, advocate, and systems thinker. Julie brings together what some consider competing forces in education — joy and rigor — and proves that not only can they coexist, but that the best schools demand both.
At many Uncommon campuses, the week begins with Community Circle — a time when students and staff gather in a shared rhythm of celebration, reflection, and purpose. This ritual includes an actual drum circle, where students strike hand drums or stomp rhythms into the floor — each beat a declaration of unity, intention, and identity.
The drum has become more than an instrument. It’s a metaphor for the culture Julie has helped create — a steady, collective pulse that drives progress forward. Each beat echoes the values at the heart of Uncommon: equity, excellence, and belief in every child. And behind that rhythm is Julie Jackson — not just keeping the beat but leading it.
She’s the drummer who never lets the cadence falter. The conductor who invites others into the rhythm. The visionary who knows that meaningful change doesn’t come from noise — it comes from purposeful, practiced, powerful sound.
And at Uncommon Schools, that sound is unmistakable.
From Reluctant Teacher to Relentless Leader
Julie never planned to be an educator. Like many high-achieving students, she initially imagined a different career path. But a two-year commitment with Teach for America changed everything. Julie started her career by teaching mathematics and English language arts in Paterson Public Schools in the state of New Jersey — home to some of the lowest performing schools in the state.
“It was the hardest thing I did,” said Julie “I was getting my ass kicked every day, but it was fun and it was exciting to see kids learn.”
Julie stayed for four years — twice her initial commitment — and was named Teacher of the Year in 1998. Still, she knew she had room to grow.
Being awarded Teacher of the Year so early in her career lit a fire under her. “Although I was excited, I was only teaching for two or three years,” said Julie. “I still had a lot of growth to do and I needed to get it.”
That hunger led her to North Star Academy in Newark, an Uncommon School. There, she found the development she craved.
“I felt like I could develop faster to pursue my dreams of what I wanted to, said Julie. “I needed to get better for my students and wanted constant development.”
That drive for growth sparked a lifelong passion for education. What started as a two-year commitment became a calling: to serve, to lead, and to make sure every child has access to a great school.
Julie understood that parents naturally wanted the strongest, most experienced teacher for their child and leaned toward teachers with years of experience rather than new educators. This sparked her passion to create an environment where parents could be equally excited about their teacher, whether they had one year or 20 under their belt. The answer was consistency. Uncommon’s founders Norman Atkins and Jamey Verrilli recognized this spark in Julie and have replicated it with other recruits.
Julie and her team have developed a consistent set of practices and an aligned curriculum for teachers and leaders that balances structure with creativity, creating a checklist for classroom leadership that promotes consistency and maintains rigor.
Julie believes her job is to be the driver of that culture. Before serving as co-Chief Executive Officer, Julie served as Uncommon’s President, Chief Schools Officer, Managing Director, Founding Elementary and High School Principal, Dean of Students, and Teacher. She has trained over 25,000 teachers and leaders, both nationally and internationally in China, South Africa, Chicago, Detroit, Texas, New York, and New Jersey.
“My job is to get people at the table who are not currently at the table,” said Julie. “Whether that’s in a classroom leadership role or a school leadership role, my job is to open those doors so they can have that impact — and so our kids can see themselves in the people who are leading this organization.”
Building Systems, Beating the Drum
If you ask Julie what makes Uncommon different, she doesn’t hesitate: “Our secret sauce is professional development.”
Development isn’t a one-off training or a compliance exercise; Julie sees ongoing professional development as a cornerstone of successful schools. It’s a daily practice, woven into the culture from day one. PD is not just for new teachers. “We are able to develop teachers and leaders at all levels of the organization,” she said. We have development for new teachers, veteran teachers, and master teachers.”
That includes the Master Teacher Institute, a signature initiative designed to support and elevate high-performing educators while keeping them in the classroom.
“If you can make someone better in 40 minutes, and they can make students better in that same time period — that’s impact,” said Julie. “We don’t just talk about excellence. We build it.”
Teachers gather in the summer for professional development, and principals have professional development once a month to review topics and challenges they are seeing from the ground.
The result is a culture of growth, not perfectionism. Teachers are not left to sink or swim; they’re coached, supported, and empowered to take risks and deliver the kind of instruction that transforms student outcomes.
Uncommon Schools also empower leaders of color through their Lead from Within Fellowship Program. Recognizing the urgent need for diversity in the community of school principals, the program accepts principals of color from traditional and charter schools who are entering their first to third year as principal. Whether through coaching, fellowship, or mentorship, Julie is always keeping time — ensuring every educator, at every level, finds their rhythm in the larger composition of school success.
Joy and Rigor: A Non-Negotiable Balance
Under Julie’s leadership, academic rigor is a non-negotiable standard and so is cultivating a culture of joy.
“How do we do both joy and rigor? You have to invest in your kids and your team,” said Julie. “You have to have a high bar for excellence and create a culture where students want to learn.”
That philosophy shows up everywhere: in community circles that foster belonging, in aligned curriculum that ensures every child gets access to strong reading and math instruction, and in systems designed to celebrate both effort and achievement.
“Kids are so fragile,” said Julie. “They need to see they are loved and cared for.”
The balance between joy and rigor isn’t easy, but Julie sees it as essential. They’re two hands on the same drum. “In order to transition from teacher to leader, you have to have gotten results. But joy also matters. How do you infuse joy so kids will learn?”
Scaling Impact without Losing Focus
For Julie, the work has always been about scale and purpose. “What is really important to me is doing this at scale,” she said. “We should be thinking big and dreaming big. How many kids can we impact over time who can then go on to impact others?”
That long-term thinking drives her commitment to college access as well. “We still believe that college can change a child’s trajectory,” she said. “Most of our kids are coming out of college with $5,000 in debt or less. That matters. We don’t want our students to randomly enter the workforce. We want them to have options.”
At Uncommon, preparing students for “to, through, and beyond college” remains a central mission. But Julie knows that doesn’t happen without strong teachers, strong systems, and strong leadership pipelines — especially ones that reflect the students served.
Julie’s commitment to cultivating representative leadership has fueled one of Uncommon’s most critical strategies: growing leaders from within who reflect the communities they serve. “When we’re doing this at scale, impact matters,” she said. “How many kids can we reach over time who can then go on to impact others?”
That belief in scale, not just for the sake of growth but as a driver of equity, defines Julie’s vision of the charter movement as both a proving ground and a platform for broader change.
“We’re trying to create an impact – we don’t have 30 kids. We have 20,000,” said Julie.
The Final Beat
As a veteran of the charter sector, Julie is keenly aware of both its potential and its pressures. But she remains a fierce advocate for its purpose: to expand opportunity, push innovation, and prove what’s possible.
She dreams of building a “lab school within a school,” a space where innovation can thrive and best practices can be tested and shared.
“The charter story is not being told,” she said. “It’s my job to reach the students I might never meet and create spaces for innovation and excellence. It’s our job to pay it forward to kids and teachers we may never meet.”
Throughout her journey from the classroom to the C-suite, Julie has remained steadfast in her belief that joy, rigor, and representative leadership are not only compatible but essential to achieving lasting educational equity. Her impact is reflected not just in student outcomes but in the systems she builds, the leaders she develops, and the culture of excellence she champions.
At Uncommon, excellence isn’t reserved for a few — it’s expected of all. Under Julie’s leadership, that expectation is met with the training, structures, and heart required to sustain it. But she knows maintaining that vision at scale takes more than belief and infrastructure; it demands bold advocacy. Julie is a member of the Board of Trustees for the New Jersey Charter Schools Association.
“All these blocks for families to access good education are unfair,” she said. “We need funding to support the programs that help children. We need to advocate for students to grow and develop in the ways that kids in private schools already have access to.”
Julie isn’t just leading a network. She’s keeping time for a movement — one where every beat carries the promise of opportunity, equity, and excellence. And as long as she’s behind the drum, the rhythm of change will never stop.