David A. Silver

David Silver is an innovative leader for educational equity informed by decades of work in deep partnership with the community for social justice. As the Director of Education for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf for the past eight years, he brought together diverse stakeholders to build public-private partnerships, create coalitions and develop innovative models to increase educational equity that produced immediate impact, generational tranformation, and potential local, state and national models. From his experiences as a teacher in Compton and Oakland, co-founder and principal of Think College Now Elementary for eight years, to becoming a CEO of College Track for four years, David Silver has grown to become a leader for educational equity.  He has most recently worked to create and sustain impact for equity working in collaboration with not only the Mayor but also students, families, educators, partners, labor, philanthropy, businesses, Oakland Unified School District, the City of Oakland, the State of California to realize a vision of educational equity for all students in Oakland.

After starting his career as a teacher in Compton and Oakland, David founded Think College Now, a high-performing, innovative, college-focused, community public school in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. Serving as the founding principal, David helped lead TCN to unprecedented growth, and it became the first school in Fruitvale to receive a California Distinguished Schools Awards and one of only 50 schools in all of California that was both a California Distinguished School and given the Title One Academic Achievement Award. David later served as the CEO of College Track, a national non-profit organization that empowers students from underserved communities to graduate from college. In David’s five years at College Track, the organization tripled in size while students attained a college acceptance rate of 94%, a college matriculation rate of 89%, and a college graduation rate that was more than 2.5x the national average for students in low-income communities.

David joined Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s office as the Director of Education in 2015 and created the Oakland Promise, a cradle-to-career initiative with the goal of dramatically increasing the number of college graduates from Oakland within a decade. The Mayor's Office, Oakland Unified School District, East Bay College Fund, the Oakland Public Education Fund, and other implementing partners, champions, and ambassadors have worked together to realize the Mayor and Superintendent’s vision of every Oakland public school student graduating high school with the expectations, resources, and skills to complete college and be successful in the career of their choice. Oakland Promise has created a cradle-to-career pipeline where medical-eligible babies will have access to Colllege Savings Accounts, has provided over 30,000 kindergarteners with scholarships, and 46% of the first cohort of OP scholars have graduated from college or are still pursuing their degree, compared to 28% of students from low-income backgrounds nationally. To sustain Oakland Promise, David helped ensure it not only created a $50M Generation Fund, but also led the transition from the Mayor's office to become its own 501c3 non-profit with an oustanding Board of Directors with a CEO. 

David played a key role in creating and developing the Oakland Generation Fund, which aims to provide financial support to low-income children and help end generational poverty. This past year, Vice President Kamala Harris, Mayor Schaaf, Superintendent Johnson-Trammell, College CEO Sandra Ernst and David  announced the culmination of the $50M fund so that within four years, every medical eligible baby will have access to a college savings account and every high school senior from a low-income background will have access to $1,000/year scholarship towards post-secondary education through graduation.  

In the 2020-21 school year, David co-founded #OaklandUndivided, which delivered 29,000 computers and 10,000 hotspots, provided culturally-competent tech support and increased home tech connectivity for students from low-income backgrounds from 12% to 98%.  Over the past three years, he has ensured that all 50,000 Oakland public school students continue to have access to a computer and internet in their home, and led the expansion from cradle to career by expanding access to OUSD and Head Start families as well as students at eight Bay Area colleges and universities.  Today, he is serving as Senior Advisor to strengthen digital equity and support continued cradle-to-career digitial access, and realize #OaklandUndivided's goal to provide access to high-speed internet to all disconnected Oakland residents and increase city-wide broadband to sustain digital access and close the digital divide for good. 

David presently leads the Northern California College Promise Coalition, a coalition he co-founded four years ago, that consists of 100s of mayors, cities, college promises, and college access programs serving over 150,000 students by advancing Policy, building campus Partnerships, Workforce development, and facilitating communities of Practice to strengthen conditions to increase opportunties for post-secondary success. 

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MA, Harvard University

BA, University of California, Los Angeles

Director of Education for Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf | Oakland Mayor's Primary Policymaker and Advisor on Education-related Initiatives. Led the creation, design, launch, and implementation of innovative public-private partnerships in collaboration with students, families, educators, partners, the City, County, OUSD, pre-K, K-12, college, philanthropic, business, and community partners to address inequities and increase opportunities for all Oakland students. Created, sustained, and expanded public-private partnerships that produced $125M in philanthropic funding for the Oakland Promise (OP) and Northern California College Promise Coalition (NCCPC) to increase college access and completion, #OaklandUndivided (#OU) to ensure all Oakland public school students have home access to a computer, internet, and tech support, and Teachers Rooted in Oakland (TRiO) to ensure BIPOC educators have affordable housing across our city and state.  To ensure sustainability, we have also created partnerships with the city and state to leverage public resources. Specifically, since we launched OP and TRiO, the state has partnered with Oakland and recently expanded investments in CSA's ($1.9B) and Teacher Residency programs across California ($200M).  Most recently, the creation of a public funding stream of $30M/year for 30 years through a community-led coalition, The Oakland Children’s Initiative, to increase access to quality pre-school and cradle-to-career support - within a decade, all 3- and 4-year olds from low-income backgrounds in Oakland will have access to quality pre-school. 

Founder of Oakland Promise | Led in the creation of one of the most innovative public policy and private partnership initiatives in the nation, which will serve 30,000 Oakland youth from childhood to adulthood with college access and completion support.   Providing cradle to career support to 30,000+ K-12 students including early college scholarships, external evaluations of CSA accounts to medical-eligible babies, and access and completion support that has led to increased college persistence rates well over the national average. Most recently, US Vice President Kamala Harris visited Oakland to announce the launch of the $50M Generation Fund, which will ensure that within 4 years all Oakland Medi-Cal eligible babies will receive a $500 CSAs & high school seniors from low-income backgrounds will be entitled to college scholarships of $1,000/year through 2035.

Co-Created and Co-Launched with Mayor Schaaf the $50MM Generation Fund - Over the past five years, David worked in partnership with the Mayor to develop and successfully implement a strategy to sustain a commitment to Oakland children for the next generation.  Foundations, corporations and individuals came together to make commitments and invest $50M in the future success of Oakland students and families. This culminated in Vice President Kamala Harris visiting Oakland in 2022 to announce the launch of the $50M Generation Fund, which will ensure that within 4 years all Oakland Medi-Cal eligible babies will receive a $500 CSAs & high school seniors from low-income backgrounds will be entitled to college scholarships of $1,000/year through 2035. 

Co-Founder, #OaklandUndivided - Launched #OaklandUndivided to increase digital connectivity from 12% to 98% for low-income students during the pandemic | In partnership with the Mayor, the City,  Superintendent, and other public and private parnters, #OaklandUndivided recently made a commitment for the 3rd straight year to ensure all 50,000 Oakland public school students have home access to a computer, internet, and culturally competent tech support.  To date, we have provided over 39k computers, 15k hotspots and fulfilled over 18k tech support requests and recently expanded to serve pre-kindergarten and local college students.

Co-created and Chair of the Northern CA College Promise Coalition (NCCPC) | NCCPCs vision is to strengthen condiitions for college and career success through policy legislation and advocacy, workforce and campus partnerships, and leverage best practice sharing for 150,000 students across 12 Northern California counties.  NCCPC leverages the strengths of 150 leaders representing 30+ member organizations including Mayors, College Promise and Access Orgs, Colleges, and Education Technology Nonprofits.

Innovative Leadership for Educational Equity

David Silver CV.pdf

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CEO of College Track | A national non-profit organization that empowers students from underserved communities to graduate from college. College Track (CT) recruits future first generation college students in 8th grade and works with them for 10 years in high school and college until they earn a college degree. Under my tenure, College Track dramatically improved the overall quality, scale, and sustainability of the program. College Track students had their highest rates of college acceptance (94%), matriculation (80%+), and completion (2.5 times greater than the national average for low-income students). We doubled the number of College Track cities and increased the number of institutional, university partners to 16. 

Founder & Principal, Think College Now Elementary, OUSD | In collaboration with community organizations, district leadership, teachers, families, and students, David started the first public college-prep elementary school for low-income students in California. Think College Now (TCN) was created in partnership with Oakland Community Organizations (PICO), National Equity Project (BAYCES), and Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) as a part of the small schools movement and became a high-performing, innovative, college-focused, community public school in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. .  Serving as the founding principal, David helped lead TCN to unprecedented growth, increasing proficiency rates from 8% to 60% in reading and 23% to 80% in math, and it became the first school in Fruitvale to receive a California Distinguished Schools Awards and one of only 50 schools in all of California that was both a California Distinguished School and given the Title One Academic Achievement Award.  Of the initial 39 students in the inaugural class, 31 went on to college.  David continues in close contact with many of the TCN alumni, some of whom he have become leaders at Oakland Promise, in the Mayor's office and with #OaklandUndivided and as educators in Oakland Unified School District.  Since 2007, every year students and families come back to TCN annually for the TCN Alumni Annual reunion - in addition to a special dinner for all TCN High School Seniors, college students and college grads to re-connect with the TCN community and have access to support for college and career success. 

Think College Now Elementary OUSD, Congressional Testimony on Successful School Turnaround

Assistant Principal, Lockwood Elementary, OUSD | Managed teacher support, evaluation, and family engagement of a 600-student school, including creating a more inclusive environment for non-English speaking families.

School Director, Teach for America | Responsible for 300 students, comprehensive training for 80 new teachers, and directed management of 15 mentor-teachers.

Regional Program Director, Teach for America | Oversaw placement, professional development, and support for 100+ new teachers in Oakland, East Palo Alto, and San Jose. 

Bilingual (Spanish) Teacher, Hawthorne Elementary, OUSD (Oakland Unified) 

Teach for America Corps Member, Second Grade, Bunche Elementary in Compton Unified

David A. Silver

Co-Founder of Think College Now, Oakland Promise and #OaklandUndvided

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