Bob Jarvis

About Bob Jarvis

My current professional interests and activities involve working with regional school districts, state departments of education, researchers and educational equity policy leaders in building school districts’ capacities to better serve the learning and developmental needs of their increasing numbers of challenged and underperforming diverse learners. Regionally I have been supporting the work of the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Departments of Education, the Chester County Intermediate Unit and multiple regional school districts in their in their equity-focused organizing and planning efforts, I have recently retired from full-time effort as the Director of the Coalition for Educational Equity in the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, where my efforts over the past 18 years focused on building collaborative networks of district and school leaders throughout the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond. Over this time I developed 14 Excellence Through Equity Consortia that have served well over 200 urban, suburban and rural school districts throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Michigan. Our shared quest has been to eliminate the historic and pervasive gaps we observe in student achievement, attainment and opportunity most often defined by race/ethnicity and poverty. I bring over forty years of distinguished experience in Educational Leadership and Systems Change in K-12 education through district-wide leadership development, educational equity policy development and targeted district/school organizational change initiatives.My current training interests include: District, School and School Board Leadership for Excellence and Equity, Enhancing Diverse Students\' Achievement and Life Success, Teacher Leadership for Change, Youth Leadership Development, Learning Support Program Development and Systemic Equity-Driven Organizational Change in Schools

Experience

1. Board Member

   Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

   Jan 2026 — Present

Education

• Western Oregon University

  Bachelor's degree, Corrections-Criminology and Psychology

• Michigan State University

  M.A. and Ph.D., Educational Psychology, Organizational Psychology, Special Education

  1976 — 1980