Donald R. McAdams

Chairman and Founder

Donald R. McAdams started CRSS near the end of his 12 years of service on the Houston Independent School District Board.  During his board tenure, McAdams co-authored the board’s A Declaration of Beliefs and Visions, which has guided district policy for more than a decade. 

As a Houston trustee, McAdams was a board leader in school accountability, district decentralization, charter schools, and the outsourcing of many district business functions to private contractors.  He also led the development of more flexible personnel management policies, an academic core curriculum for high school students, a new elementary school reading curriculum, promotion standards, and other improvements to education and management.  He served two years as president of the board. 

McAdams has been a research professor at the University of Houston and an independent quality management consultant, with national and international clients in manufacturing, mining, travel, financial services, healthcare, and education.  Previously, he served as executive vice president of the American Productivity and Quality Center, president of the Texas Independent College Fund, president of Southwestern Adventist College, and professor of history at Andrews University. 

In 2002, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige appointed McAdams to the National Advisory Council on Institutional Quality and Integrity.  In 2003, Texas Governor Rick Perry appointed him to a Select Committee charged with preparing legislative proposals for a new public school finance system for the entire state.  He has also served as a member of the National Commission on Governance, Education Commission of the States, Educational Leadership Advisory Council of the Wallace-Readers Digest Funds, and as a consultant to the Annenberg Institute for School Reform.  Additionally, McAdams has served on the boards of a major hospital, two private schools, and many other academic and civic organizations. 

McAdams is the author of Fighting to Save Our Urban Schools . . . and Winning! Lessons from Houston (Teachers College Press, 2000), and What School Boards Can Do: Reform Governance for Urban Schools (Teachers College Press, January 2006).  He has also had numerous articles published in academic journals and editorials on education reform published in major newspapers. 

McAdams holds a Doctor of Philosophy in British History from Duke University. 


To contact Donald McAdams, send an e-mail to:  mcadams@crss.org