Cynthia Simon Millinger, M.Ed., is the founding president of Charter School Startup.

 

A leading expert on the Common Core State Standards and the national PARCC assessment, Cynthia has used Common Core Essentials to help many charter schools and founding groups in Washington, DC, New York City and New Jersey develop and implement authentic Common Core-based curricula. Through her work, several urban New Jersey schools have seen their NJ ASK math scores increase by an annual average of 24%.

 

Since 2007, Cynthia has been the principal curriculum consultant for the DC-based Friends of Choice in Urban Schools (FOCUS), the New York City Charter School Center, and the Maryland Charter School Network. She is also one of the primary school evaluators for the Charter Schools Institute at the State University of New York, and has been the lead math consultant for the Newark Charter Schools Fund. In these capacities, Cynthia has delivered both in-person and online workshops to hundreds of charter school applicants and leaders on a wide-range of education program topics, including mission, Common Core standards, instruction, assessment, and curriculum mapping.

 

In her current role as the leading new school development consultant for the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, she has helped Charter Support Organizations (CSOs) across the country create robust and sustainable charter development programs. She has presented to CSOs at several National Alliance Master Classes on curriculum and school development, as well as to charter school leaders and teachers at the National Charter Schools Conference for the past three years.  

 

With experience as an elementary, middle, and high school teacher, and as Chair of the English Department at a charter school in DC, Cynthia came to Washington, DC's FOCUS in 2004 to establish their charter school startup program. She is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University, and earned her Master's in Middle School Education from Lesley University. Cynthia currently resides near Princeton, New Jersey with her husband and two children.