Jendayi Gardner

Jendayi Gardner

2018 NACSA Leader

Director of Charter Schools, Detroit Public Schools Community District

Dr. Jendayi Gardner was appointed Senior Deputy Executive Director of the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) Office of Charter Schools in August of 2017. In the 2017-18 school year, Dr. Gardner will work to serve as a High Quality Authorizer by providing oversight and customized support to every DPSCD charter school.

Prior to becoming the Senior Deputy Executive Director, Dr. Gardner served as the Deputy Director for the DPSCD Office of Charter Schools. During that time, she provided academic training and support to schools, with a special emphasis on schools whose performance on the 2016 M-STEP assessment was in the bottom 5 percent of schools in Michigan. Dr. Gardner has been an educator with Detroit Public Schools Community District for seventeen years.  Dr. Gardner began her career as a mathematics teacher for DPSCD. After serving 10 years as an educator, Dr. Gardner served in various central office roles where she utilized data to drive systematic change and provided school stakeholders with intensive intervention training targeted towards improving student achievement.

Dr. Gardner has a keen ability of capturing evidence of instructional strategies implemented by teachers in the classroom and helping to transform the strategies into exemplary instruction. Dr. Gardner graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics. Following her graduation, she received her master’s degree in Educational Leadership and doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Wayne State University.


Most Recent Posts
New Charter Schools Need Vetting. But the Process Shouldn’t Shut Good Ones Out
Over the last year, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers and our partners engaged nearly 150 school leaders, authorizers, organizations, prospective school founders and advocates — through interviews, focus...
NACSA’s New Schools With Communities Guide
In every community–especially those historically under-resourced–there is long-ignored and underutilized knowledge and potential. At the heart of NACSA’s work lies the recognition of these tremendous assets and a desire to...
Continuing Conversations on Multiple Measures
At NACSA, we work to ensure students and communities—especially those who are historically under-resourced—thrive. Thriving means different things for different students, schools, and communities. And to ensure we capture the...