Antwan Wilson

Wilson resigned as DCPS chancellor on February 20, 2018, after media reports that he had bypassed the school system's lottery process to win a place at a prestigious school for one of his children.

On February 16, 2018, Wilson admitted in an interview with WAMU, a local public radio station, that he asked then-Deputy Mayor for Education Jennifer Niles to exempt his daughter from the admissions lottery and immediately transfer her from Duke Ellington School of the Arts (where she was having personal and academic problems) to Woodrow Wilson High School. The request was granted.

In November 2017, The Washington Post reported that Wilson had left the Oakland public school system in an unresolved financial crisis. Wilson, the newspaper said, had downplayed Oakland's $30 million budget deficit to D.C. officials and the public. Carmelita Reyes, principal of Oakland International High School, co-chair of Oakland's Principals Advisory Committee, and a member of the Oakland School District Budget Advisory Committee, said that shortly after Wilson announced his resignation, all school district budgets in Oakland were frozen due to the emerging financial crisis. The Post disclosed that:

The fiscal crisis in Oakland was so severe, that on August 15, 2017, the state-run Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT, which assists the district in managing its affairs), said the Oakland public school district had "lost control of its spending, [and] allow[ed] school sites and departments to ignore and override board policies by spending beyond their budgets." FCMAT also concluded that during Wilson's tenure as superintendent, "this behavior has permeated to the site administration, causing a lack of consistency in appropriate site size, staffing, class offerings and budgets." Auditors for the state of California concluded in another report that, under Wilson, the Oakland school district had "lost control of its spending". On November 8, 2015, the Oakland Board of Education ordered $15.1 million in emergency budget cuts, even though the budget had already been significantly cut earlier in the year.

Both Superintendent Wilson and Mayor Bowser declined to comment on the Oakland crisis when questioned by the media in late November 2017. Principal Reyes said that the school board shared responsibility with Wilson for budget overruns, excessive new supervisory hires, excessive salaries, and the lack of both software and staff to oversee spending. The Washington Post noted that most D.C. school system observers had "no firm opinions" about Wilson's tenure in the District of Columbia.

In April 2017, local news media reported that several D.C. government and DCPS officials had won special permission to transfer their children to other schools without going through the admissions lottery. Any student seeking to enroll at a school outside their assigned school boundary must enter this lottery (although some exceptions for discretionary transfers exist), which ensures fairness in awarding positions. These special permissions had been granted by Wilson's predecessor, Kaya Henderson. In the summer of 2017, Wilson established a new policy prohibiting the DCPS chancellor from granting non-lottery admissions without following the exceptions procedures.

Antwan Wilson (born 1972) is an American teacher and school administrator. He was appointed the Superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California, in 2014, and resigned effective February 2017. On December 20, 2016, he was confirmed as Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools in Washington, D.C. He began his new position on February 1, 2017.

Under Wilson, the Oakland school district also negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement with its teacher and education paraprofessional unions in 2016. It was the first time since 2009 that the two sides had been able to reach an agreement.

On November 21, 2016, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser nominated Wilson to be the Chancellor of the District of Columbia Public Schools. Bowser said Wilson was a "proven manager" who "was bold and strategic and open and transparent". She highlighted Wilson's ability to bring fiscal stability to the school district. Wilson announced the same day that he was resigning as superintendent of the Oakland school district, effective in February 2017. Wilson's nomination required approval by the Council of the District of Columbia. DCPS analyst Mary Levy later noted that Bowser had provided "no public information" about the process she used to identify potential candidates, nor who she had considered.

At a confirmation hearing on December 7, 2016, the D.C. city council questioned Wilson about how he would approach problems faced by the city schools. Wilson advocated longer school days, tutoring, and other resources for struggling children. He also promoted more extracurricular activities for middle schoolers. Some individuals and groups voiced concern over his nomination, arguing that his programs have been only moderately successful in Denver and Oakland. His nomination was unanimously confirmed by the council on December 20, and his first day on the job was February 1, 2017.

Wilson also worked to integrate Oakland's charter schools more closely with the public school system. In 2015, Wilson began an initiative to have the charter schools and public schools adopt the same curriculum, teaching methods, staff development, and administrative procedures. The following year, Wilson attempted to require use of a single form for parents to use when applying for their child's enrollment at a public school or charter school. His goal was to eliminate cherry picking by charter schools, and make charter school admissions more transparent.

Wilson graduated in 2014 from Broad Superintendents Academy, an unaccredited private certification program established by billionaire Eli Broad to train urban educational administrators in leadership skills.

In 2014, Wilson was named the superintendent of the Oakland Unified School District in Oakland, California. He succeeded Dr. Gary Yee, the acting superintendent. His reputation for turning around low-performing schools in Denver attracted him to the Oakland search committee. Wilson was selected from a pool of 20 candidates, five of which were finalists for the position. The school board voted to hire him unanimously. He was given a four-year contract, with a start date of July 1, 2014.

In 2008, Wilson was appointed High School Instructional Superintendent for the Denver Public Schools. A year later, he was promoted to Assistant Superintendent for Post-Secondary Readiness. During his tenure as assistant superintendent, Wilson co-founded a program titled "Denver Summit Schools" that targeted the school district's 11 worst-performing schools. Each school received a theme (such an international studies or culinary arts), assistance with discipline and behavioral issues, and began offering Advanced Placement courses. Teachers received new instructional training and additional support. Enrollment at the schools soared, the dropout rate fell by 60 percent, and test scores rose (most significantly for racial minorities).

In 2005, Wilson accepted a position as principal at Montbello High School in Denver, Colorado. The school, which opened in 1980 in a poverty- and violence-ridden area of the city, had the nickname "Mont-ghetto". Students at Montbello had struggled to do well, and attendance, graduation rates, and state test scores were all low. Discipline problems were rife at the school, and teacher turnover was high. Wilson initially implemented a program of strict discipline, in which students were not allowed to skip classes, hang out in hallways, or form large groups in hallways. Students who did not turn in assignments were required to spend part of their lunch time doing homework, and suspensions were largely replaced with in-school detention combined with intense academic work. Later, Wilson encouraged faculty to focus on teaching basic skills, improving critical thinking, and using a more interactive teaching approach. This included building community spirit at Montbello as well as extensive assessment. Testing was viewed as a means of identifying what skills and knowledge needed to be taught, rather than as a way of seeing which students were not achieving. State test scores improved and suspensions decreased during Wilson's tenure at Montbello.

In 2000, Wilson received his master's degree in educational leadership from Friends University in Wichita.

Wilson married his wife, Tresa (also an educator), while working in Wichita from 2000 to 2003. The couple had a daughter, and twin daughters.

After graduation, Wilson resolved to teach for at least five years. He spent a year teaching in Raleigh, North Carolina, and then three years teaching at a high school in Wichita. He also coached basketball and track. In 1999, Wilson accepted a job as an assistant principal at Lincoln High School in Lincoln, Nebraska, but left after a year to take a position as assistant principal at Wichita South High School. Wilson was appointed principal at Wichita's Pleasant Valley Middle School, the first time he taught in a school where most of the students came from poverty-stricken backgrounds and were under-performing. Wilson adopted the motto "Success for all. No excuses." during his time at Pleasant Valley, and implemented a number of programs for students, faculty, and parents to boost attendance, reduce discipline problems, and improve learning.

Wilson was born in Wichita, Kansas, about 1972. He has one younger brother and one younger sister. He grew up in Wichita and in Lincoln, Nebraska, and for most of this time his mother was single. The family was very poor, and Wilson's mother had to work several jobs to support her children. He often lived in areas where drug use and drug dealing, violence, and gangs were common.