The Jefferson County school board selected Brian Yearwood to be its new superintendent in May. Photo provided by Brian Yearwood
New Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS) Superintendent Brian Yearwood has been in the process of establishing clear goals for the district since he started on July 1.
One of Yearwood’s main goals is to focus on how the district can increase test scores and academic proficiency. He wants to establish goals of where the district wants results to be in three to five years, particularly in the areas of literacy and numeracy.
“I want my students reading at or above grade level, and I want them performing with their math at or above grade level,” Yearwood said.
Yearwood came to the district from Columbia Public Schools in Missouri, where he served as the superintendent from 2021 to 2024.
When he started, the district was scoring at about 70% on its Annual Performance Report (APR). Under his leadership, they became the most improved district in the state. By his third year, the district reached an APR score of 86.5%.
Yearwood spent the first 22 years of his career in four Texas school districts. He was a science teacher, tennis coach, assistant principal and principal.
Over the three and a half years that he was assistant superintendent at Manor Independent School District in Texas, he helped take the district from an F rating to an A-B rating. He oversaw curriculum, instruction, human resources and academics. Yearwood said this experience helped him gain expertise in curriculum design, operational management and strategic planning.
Yearwood was born in Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago, to parents who were both educators. He moved to the United States at age 17 on a tennis scholarship to the New Mexico Military Institute.
He earned an associate degree at the school, then went to Texas Tech University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in geology and a teaching certificate in science. He has a master’s degree in educational administration and a doctorate in educational leadership and statistics from Texas Tech University as well.
Yearwood said throughout his career, he has become skilled at predicting outcomes for things put in place and decisions that are made.
“Because of my knowledge, I should be able to predict certain outcomes,” Yearwood said. “It’s one thing to put initiatives in place and to make decisions, but a key factor for any leader is to be able to predict the outcome based upon the decision, based upon the initiatives that are that are put in place.”
He said one major thing that contributes to a school’s success is cultivating a desire for growth among teachers and students.
“You have to have a team that believes in the turnaround model; that they have the belief that failure is not an option,” Yearwood said. “They have the belief that every child has the ability to grow, and so once you start changing that belief, you start changing the culture of your school.”
When he was a principal in the Lubbock Independent School District in Texas, he helped cultivate that desire. Working as a team, Yearwood said the culture of desiring growth became so ingrained in student success that it took the district from an F rating to eventually an A rating.
“The expectation is that it doesn’t matter what level you’re on, we will grow you accordingly,” Yearwood said. “What I noticed is instead of setting proficiency goals where everyone has to meet this certain mark, when children understand that the expectation is to grow, that means you can go from a 60 to a 65. You can go from a 60 to a 100. It doesn’t matter; as long as you’re growing, the motivation level changes.”
He said students should set their own personal goals. Once they set a goal and achieve it, their motivation increases exponentially. He often sees students surpassing their goals.
“That’s why I refer to my students as scholars, aspirational scholars, because you never know the true abilities of a child,” he said. “But we have to spend our time unlocking that potential, no matter where that child is.”
Yearwood hopes to create the same culture at JCPS. He said he has been impressed by how much people care about the success of the district. He has seen that passion for improving academics from internal and external community members, parents and state legislators.
“Everyone is truly passionate about JCPS. Everyone wants to see JCPS succeed; they hold it in high regard,” he said. “I’ve embraced that and that has made me feel more encouraged.”
Another main goal Yearwood has for the district is to focus on increasing attendance. He acknowledged that students who are chronically absent are much less likely to perform well academically.
He also wants to focus on discipline and increasing safety among students, which Yearwood said further contributes to educational success.
“We have to make sure that our learning environment is safe, which means that we’ll be looking at things like bullying episodes, we’ll be looking at fights, we’ll be looking at anything that causes levels of violence within our schools to determine how can we begin the process to reduce what we’re seeing,” he said.
He plans to increase training for teachers in trauma-informed knowledge and de-escalation techniques. He also wants to promote social-emotional learning and make sure the practices and trainings help reduce the need for discipline.
Yearwood said his favorite part about education is having an impact on students.
“There’s no reward greater than watching a child excel in their academics, whether it’s science, reading or technology,” he said. “Knowing that you had a decision or an impact, although it may not be directly hands on, but the decisions that you make, and for me as a superintendent, contributed to the success of many of our students.”
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