As a past principal, chief academic officer, deputy superintendent of schools, researcher, and program developer, Cheryl King brings more than 25 years of experience in leading school reform initiatives. At EDC, she oversees a team of curriculum, research, technology, professional development, and technical assistance experts whose mission is to eliminate barriers to high quality teaching and learning for all students, particularly those with special needs and those who come from low-income families.

King's work over the past decade has focused on improving the quality of principal preparation programs using a rigorous, evidence-based research and evaluation approach to examining recruitment and selection practices, course content and pedagogy, and graduates’ performance as principals. King leads EDC’s team for the National Center on Scaling Up Effective Schools in partnership with Vanderbilt, Wisconsin, and Florida State Universities.

King works with a broad network of school districts, universities, and state departments of education across the country as well as with the Southern Regional Education Board, Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Governors Association, New Leaders for New Schools, the New York City Leadership Academy, the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Urban Leadership Program, and the University Council for Education Administration on issues related to education leadership.

She is coauthor of “Districts Developing Leaders: Lessons Learned from Eight Urban School Districts” and the chapter “Models of Preparation for the Professions: Implications for Educational Leadership.” King is lead developer of Quality Measures™ for Education Leadership Systems and Programs, a suite of tools and protocols for assessing principal preparation programs used in over 32 programs in 12 states. She provided the leadership for the national Quality Measures™ Practitioners’ Forum.

Before joining EDC, King was Chief Academic Officer for Providence Public Schools in Rhode Island; Deputy Superintendent in for Flint Community Schools in Michigan; and Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Chief of Staff, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, Elementary Principal, and teacher for Grand Rapids Public Schools in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

King is a graduate fellow of the Broad Urban Superintendents Academy, a Featherstone Scholar, and a graduate of Education Policy Fellowship Program and Leadership Michigan. She was named Administrator of the Year by the Michigan Association of School Counselors and has been recognized for her contributions to public education by numerous local organizations in the communities in which she has worked.

King received her BA from Aquinas College and her MA and PhD from Michigan State University.