May 21, 2025 • 9 mins
Andrew M. McRae is a passionate and experienced educator, public speaker, and transformational leader with over 16 years of serving in underserved communities in Houston, Tulsa, and Cleveland. As the founding Chief Academic Officer for Breakthrough Public Schools (BPS), one of the highest-rated networks of tuition-free, public charter schools in Cleveland, Ohio, he is responsible for setting academic vision and strategy, managing data and analytics, revising the curriculum, devising instruction tools, and overseeing all student services.
Andrew's purpose is deeply rooted in building enduring systems of excellence for African-American students and transforming organizations to empower communities. He holds a Master's in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Thomas and a Principal certification from the Texas Education Agency. He is skilled in strategic planning, budget management, operational improvement, instructional design, educational assessment, project management, curriculum development, and staff training and leadership. He is also enthusiastic about permission-less learning models that allow students to be the drivers of their learning and reignite their imaginations.
Andrew's purpose is deeply rooted in building enduring systems of excellence for African-American students and transforming organizations to empower communities. He holds a Master's in Educational Leadership from the University of St. Thomas and a Principal certification from the Texas Education Agency. He is skilled in strategic planning, budget management, operational improvement, instructional design, educational assessment, project management, curriculum development, and staff training and leadership. He is also enthusiastic about permission-less learning models that allow students to be the drivers of their learning and reignite their imaginations.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to another edition of Iheartradios. CEOs you should know
today our guest is Andrew McCrae, the CEO of Breakthrough
Public Schools, one of Ohio's leading public charter school networks.
And mister McCray, thanks for being here today. Thank you
so much for having me. I look forward to our conversation. Yeah,
for sure. And you know I stand here today with
(00:22):
a deep respect and humility for the work that educators do.
I mentioned this to you earlier. I had the good
fortune of being on a board of a charter school
about fifteen years ago, so I have an appreciation for
the work you're doing. Can you talk to us a
little bit about what charter schools do. There's a lot
of misinformation about what they are and what they do.
Can you talk to us a little bit about what
(00:43):
is a charter school?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Absolutely so. My name is Andrew McCrae. I have the
great honor and privilege of being the CEO of Breakthrough
Public Schools. And charter schools are free, open enrollment public
schools that operate really on a simple concept. We say
to the State of Ohio or to our sponsors or
authorizers that in exchange for some autonomy to govern ourselves,
(01:07):
to make our own curriculum, to self manage our own boards,
that we are going to provide a great education to students. Now,
charter schools are subject to the same rules, laws, governance
structures as traditional public schools. Because they are public schools.
We can't turn students away for any reason. We are
open enrollment, we can't discriminate on any grounds, just like
(01:30):
a traditional public school. The difference, however, is that charter
schools aren't bound by many of the procedural governance rules
that come with traditional public schools. So sometimes you can
make your own decisions around curriculum, you can make your
own decisions around how to use your budget, you can
make your own decisions around staffing, and you can operate
(01:53):
more like a traditional organization or traditional business if you would.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, in some cases that's probably really important given the
fact that oftentimes curriculums are designed as a one size
fit all for the state of Ohio, and the neighborhoods
you serve are very different than say, suburban neighborhoods in
Columbus as an example, Can you talk about why that
makes a difference in the neighborhoods you're in. Absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Organizations like Breakthrough commit to serve in the most vulnerable
populations of students, and when you go into a community,
you want to really deliver on three things. You want
to make sure that you can provide an environment where
kids feel safe, loved, known, and doing that means that
you have to be able to make sure that when
they're in that environment that they are learning. So charter
(02:41):
schools and organizations like Breakthrough have the flexibility to modify
a curriculum in the ways that they see fit, to
create innovative programs that support students from kindergarten through career,
like many of the programs that we have at Breakthrough,
and to provide that sort of wrap around support that
you might not be able to do otherwise.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You're kind of inspired some listeners here to think about
how their kids are educated. And I've always said the
respect I have for educators in this country, especially in
the last few years, where it seems as though you've
been in battle a little bit more than I think
you should be. What inspired you to get into education
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
What inspired me to get into education is the reality
that educators transformed my life. I grew up to a
single parent in a poor community in Trenton, New Jersey.
And you know, I'll save you the lifetime movie version,
but the reality is that there were educators like Dr
Joseph Youngblood and Hope Hicks who changed my life. These
(03:38):
were people who saw a kid who had great potential
but was really struggling under the weight of the challenges
of society and invested in me and saw to it
that I became a first generation college student that I graduated.
You know, these were educators that drove me to college
right and who unpacked my stuff on the first day
(03:59):
because my family wasn't able to And for me, that sacrifice,
that commitment to what's possible for young people and unlocking
their potential is the thing that inspire me to get
into the work.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
We're talking with Andrew McCrae, the CEO of Breakthrough Public Schools.
You mentioned your journey to not only college but your
master's of education, so that would give you a unique
perspective on the future of education. A lot of disruption
in the space, a lot of questions around how we're
educating our kids, why, and what jobs we're training them for.
(04:33):
Can you talk a little bit about you know, innovation
for Breakthrough the next five years.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yep. So I think Breakthrough is really committed to making
sure that we are providing scholars with the opportunity to
have a choice filled life. And so for us, what
that means is one, yes, we have kids have to
know the basics right, and nothing matters if kids can't read,
if kids can't do advanced mathematics right, like, all that
stuff has to be true. But we also have a
number of partnerships with workforce development partnerships and relationship the
(05:00):
businesses around like one, how do we help students get
access to healthcare careers, things that they can do while
in college or after in order to be able to
build a family sustaining salary. For us, that includes our
partnerships with Magnet, with the Cleveland Clinic, making sure that
we're exposing students to engineering opportunities, exposing students to the
amazing careers in the manufacturing sector that's so robust here
(05:22):
in Northeast Ohio. Right, I would say for Breakthrough specifically,
our focus is really going to be on trying to
get our kids deeply ingrained in the maths and the
sciences and really trying to take advantage of the strengths
of our Northeast Ohio community so that our young people
know that they can be anything.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
That's amazing, and hopefully some of them can see the
kind of success and growth that you saw as a
young man from Trenton, New Jersey. Now the CEO of
Ohio's leading public charter school network, Breakthrough Schools, can you
talk a little bit about on CEOs you should know
how your leadership style has gelled with Breakthrough. What do
(06:03):
you see as the most innovative qualities of a leader
and how do you project that onto your students and
your team? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So, I think I believe deeply in purpose and values
driven leadership, and so for me, my leadership starts with
putting students and families at the center of your strategic
decision making right, And so I talked a little bit
about like this idea of joy, love and academic excellence
as the framework with which I think of it. School
environments Breakthrough have to be joyful. We have to make
sure that we're adequately staff and safe and secure and
(06:31):
kids want to come to school.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
We have to add.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Expand learning programs and after school opportunities and sports and
all of the stuff that make a kid want to
come to school right, but you also have to love kids.
Doing this work and hard to serve communities is really difficult.
It comes with challenges that you might not have if
you are in an affluent community in the suburbs. So
that means you have to really love not just kids,
but our kids here in Northeast Ohio and in the
(06:56):
challenges in Cleveland to really be able to dedicate the
time and energy it takes. And then academic excellence for
me is really around centering that as the thing that
matters the most, and so overall, I would say for
my leadership, it means giving my educators and leaders the tools,
the time, and the financial resources they need to make
good decisions on behalf of kids, and then being relentless
(07:17):
about pursuing that on behalf of students and families.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
If you're listening to this and you're as inspired by
as I am by the passion that Andrew McCrae has
for educating students in vulnerable communities, I think that also
people should know breakthrough public schools is, as you mentioned,
open enrollment. Can you talk about how a parent might
get their child enrolled in one of your academies.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Absolutely, So the easiest way is to go on our
website either break Through Schools dot org or even BTC
dot org, and that will connect you to our Family
Experience Team. We can support families across eighty three languages.
We will guide you through the process that step, and
what we start by doing is getting an understanding of
(08:03):
where you live, figuring out the breakfast school that's closest
to you, and then working with you to make sure
that we can set you up and get you going
with that school. Our Family Experienced team is phenomenal. They've
been at this quite a while and they know our
network deeply. So the easiest way to get in touch
with us is to go to our website.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You mentioned the incredibly hard and difficult work that you
do that both has its rewards but also challenges. How
do you as a CEO you know your family and
you disconnect. How do you stay how should I say
this calm enough to do your job effectively given all
the chaos that surrounds the world and your students and
(08:41):
you can you talk a little bit about how you decompress.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, so for me, I think there's two ways for me,
I think. First, I have to tire my body so
that for me, I'm a runner. I'm going to be
running the Cleveland Half here this weekend, but you know,
doing distance running, making sure that I can take care
of myself so that I can be as sharp as
I possibly can mentally, and then taking care of my heart.
(09:04):
And for me that spending time with my young daughter, she's.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Two years old.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
She keeps me focus on both of the future, but
the things that matter most, and that's making sure that
young people can live a life like I've lived, to
be able to overcome obstacles and to be able to
provide a different quality experience a generation later. That's what
we aspire to do or Breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Anon McRae, CEO of Breakthrough Public Schools, We really appreciate
your time on CEOs. You should know today thanks for
being here.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'm really grateful and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs. You
should know. Today's show is produced by Bob Coates said,
I'm Keith Hodjkiss. We'll see you next time.
Welcome to another edition of Iheartradios. CEOs you should know
today our guest is Andrew McCrae, the CEO of Breakthrough
Public Schools, one of Ohio's leading public charter school networks.
And mister McCray, thanks for being here today. Thank you
so much for having me. I look forward to our conversation. Yeah,
for sure. And you know I stand here today with
(00:22):
a deep respect and humility for the work that educators do.
I mentioned this to you earlier. I had the good
fortune of being on a board of a charter school
about fifteen years ago, so I have an appreciation for
the work you're doing. Can you talk to us a
little bit about what charter schools do. There's a lot
of misinformation about what they are and what they do.
Can you talk to us a little bit about what
(00:43):
is a charter school?
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Absolutely so. My name is Andrew McCrae. I have the
great honor and privilege of being the CEO of Breakthrough
Public Schools. And charter schools are free, open enrollment public
schools that operate really on a simple concept. We say
to the State of Ohio or to our sponsors or
authorizers that in exchange for some autonomy to govern ourselves,
(01:07):
to make our own curriculum, to self manage our own boards,
that we are going to provide a great education to students. Now,
charter schools are subject to the same rules, laws, governance
structures as traditional public schools. Because they are public schools.
We can't turn students away for any reason. We are
open enrollment, we can't discriminate on any grounds, just like
(01:30):
a traditional public school. The difference, however, is that charter
schools aren't bound by many of the procedural governance rules
that come with traditional public schools. So sometimes you can
make your own decisions around curriculum, you can make your
own decisions around how to use your budget, you can
make your own decisions around staffing, and you can operate
(01:53):
more like a traditional organization or traditional business if you would.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Well, in some cases that's probably really important given the
fact that oftentimes curriculums are designed as a one size
fit all for the state of Ohio, and the neighborhoods
you serve are very different than say, suburban neighborhoods in
Columbus as an example, Can you talk about why that
makes a difference in the neighborhoods you're in. Absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Organizations like Breakthrough commit to serve in the most vulnerable
populations of students, and when you go into a community,
you want to really deliver on three things. You want
to make sure that you can provide an environment where
kids feel safe, loved, known, and doing that means that
you have to be able to make sure that when
they're in that environment that they are learning. So charter
(02:41):
schools and organizations like Breakthrough have the flexibility to modify
a curriculum in the ways that they see fit, to
create innovative programs that support students from kindergarten through career,
like many of the programs that we have at Breakthrough,
and to provide that sort of wrap around support that
you might not be able to do otherwise.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
You're kind of inspired some listeners here to think about
how their kids are educated. And I've always said the
respect I have for educators in this country, especially in
the last few years, where it seems as though you've
been in battle a little bit more than I think
you should be. What inspired you to get into education
in the first place.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
What inspired me to get into education is the reality
that educators transformed my life. I grew up to a
single parent in a poor community in Trenton, New Jersey.
And you know, I'll save you the lifetime movie version,
but the reality is that there were educators like Dr
Joseph Youngblood and Hope Hicks who changed my life. These
(03:38):
were people who saw a kid who had great potential
but was really struggling under the weight of the challenges
of society and invested in me and saw to it
that I became a first generation college student that I graduated.
You know, these were educators that drove me to college
right and who unpacked my stuff on the first day
(03:59):
because my family wasn't able to And for me, that sacrifice,
that commitment to what's possible for young people and unlocking
their potential is the thing that inspire me to get
into the work.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
We're talking with Andrew McCrae, the CEO of Breakthrough Public Schools.
You mentioned your journey to not only college but your
master's of education, so that would give you a unique
perspective on the future of education. A lot of disruption
in the space, a lot of questions around how we're
educating our kids, why, and what jobs we're training them for.
(04:33):
Can you talk a little bit about you know, innovation
for Breakthrough the next five years.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Yep. So I think Breakthrough is really committed to making
sure that we are providing scholars with the opportunity to
have a choice filled life. And so for us, what
that means is one, yes, we have kids have to
know the basics right, and nothing matters if kids can't read,
if kids can't do advanced mathematics right, like, all that
stuff has to be true. But we also have a
number of partnerships with workforce development partnerships and relationship the
(05:00):
businesses around like one, how do we help students get
access to healthcare careers, things that they can do while
in college or after in order to be able to
build a family sustaining salary. For us, that includes our
partnerships with Magnet, with the Cleveland Clinic, making sure that
we're exposing students to engineering opportunities, exposing students to the
amazing careers in the manufacturing sector that's so robust here
(05:22):
in Northeast Ohio. Right, I would say for Breakthrough specifically,
our focus is really going to be on trying to
get our kids deeply ingrained in the maths and the
sciences and really trying to take advantage of the strengths
of our Northeast Ohio community so that our young people
know that they can be anything.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
That's amazing, and hopefully some of them can see the
kind of success and growth that you saw as a
young man from Trenton, New Jersey. Now the CEO of
Ohio's leading public charter school network, Breakthrough Schools, can you
talk a little bit about on CEOs you should know
how your leadership style has gelled with Breakthrough. What do
(06:03):
you see as the most innovative qualities of a leader
and how do you project that onto your students and
your team? Absolutely?
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So, I think I believe deeply in purpose and values
driven leadership, and so for me, my leadership starts with
putting students and families at the center of your strategic
decision making right, And so I talked a little bit
about like this idea of joy, love and academic excellence
as the framework with which I think of it. School
environments Breakthrough have to be joyful. We have to make
sure that we're adequately staff and safe and secure and
(06:31):
kids want to come to school.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
We have to add.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Expand learning programs and after school opportunities and sports and
all of the stuff that make a kid want to
come to school right, but you also have to love kids.
Doing this work and hard to serve communities is really difficult.
It comes with challenges that you might not have if
you are in an affluent community in the suburbs. So
that means you have to really love not just kids,
but our kids here in Northeast Ohio and in the
(06:56):
challenges in Cleveland to really be able to dedicate the
time and energy it takes. And then academic excellence for
me is really around centering that as the thing that
matters the most, and so overall, I would say for
my leadership, it means giving my educators and leaders the tools,
the time, and the financial resources they need to make
good decisions on behalf of kids, and then being relentless
(07:17):
about pursuing that on behalf of students and families.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
If you're listening to this and you're as inspired by
as I am by the passion that Andrew McCrae has
for educating students in vulnerable communities, I think that also
people should know breakthrough public schools is, as you mentioned,
open enrollment. Can you talk about how a parent might
get their child enrolled in one of your academies.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
Absolutely, So the easiest way is to go on our
website either break Through Schools dot org or even BTC
dot org, and that will connect you to our Family
Experience Team. We can support families across eighty three languages.
We will guide you through the process that step, and
what we start by doing is getting an understanding of
(08:03):
where you live, figuring out the breakfast school that's closest
to you, and then working with you to make sure
that we can set you up and get you going
with that school. Our Family Experienced team is phenomenal. They've
been at this quite a while and they know our
network deeply. So the easiest way to get in touch
with us is to go to our website.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
You mentioned the incredibly hard and difficult work that you
do that both has its rewards but also challenges. How
do you as a CEO you know your family and
you disconnect. How do you stay how should I say
this calm enough to do your job effectively given all
the chaos that surrounds the world and your students and
(08:41):
you can you talk a little bit about how you decompress.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah, so for me, I think there's two ways for me,
I think. First, I have to tire my body so
that for me, I'm a runner. I'm going to be
running the Cleveland Half here this weekend, but you know,
doing distance running, making sure that I can take care
of myself so that I can be as sharp as
I possibly can mentally, and then taking care of my heart.
(09:04):
And for me that spending time with my young daughter, she's.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Two years old.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
She keeps me focus on both of the future, but
the things that matter most, and that's making sure that
young people can live a life like I've lived, to
be able to overcome obstacles and to be able to
provide a different quality experience a generation later. That's what
we aspire to do or Breakthrough.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Anon McRae, CEO of Breakthrough Public Schools, We really appreciate
your time on CEOs. You should know today thanks for
being here.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
I'm really grateful and this has been iHeartRadio CEOs. You
should know. Today's show is produced by Bob Coates said,
I'm Keith Hodjkiss. We'll see you next time.
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