BIOGRAPHY

Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum is the current Deputy Education Minister in charge of Basic & Secondary Education. He is also the Founder and former Chief Executive Officer of New Designs Charter Schools. The two schools have a combined enrollment of about 1200 students in grades 6-12 in Los Angeles. Through his college preparatory focus New Designs Charter Schools’ minimum graduation requirements exceed California’s a-g requirements which set the criteria for acceptance into four year universities. One hundred percent of New Designs High school graduates meets the a-g requirement which boosts the school’s four -year university college acceptance rate to not less than 95 percent.

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum also participates in accreditation visits to high schools through the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and has served as accreditation committee chair on several visits.

EXPERIENCE:

Prior to founding the first New Designs Charter School, he worked as Mathematics and Information Technology teacher at Manual Arts High School for ten years. At Manual Arts High School, he founded the International Studies Academy, which served as a small learning community where many students thrived socially and academically. In addition he served as a Lead Math Teacher in the USC/Manual Arts Neighborhood Academic Initiative (NAI).

His experience in the NAI program confirmed his belief that high standards in a well-structured learning environment could lead to higher levels of student achievement. Most of the students he taught in the NAI program proceeded to higher education in institutions like UCLA, USC, Yale, UC Berkeley, Stanford, and Cornell University among others.

At the national level he served for two years as a member of a task force established by National Research Center for Career and Technical to develop a national model for career and technical education at the high school and college levels. The project which was coordinated by the New Designs for Learning center based at the University of Oregon and was headed by George Copa, a professor of education and a career and technical education expert.

EDUCATION:

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum grew up in Ghana and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Land Economy (Business Administration with a major in Real Estate) from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology prior to immigrating to the US. In addition he has a Masters degree in Education Management from University of La Verne and a PhD in Educational Policy, Planning and Administration from the University of Southern California (USC).