Christopher d. cerf biography

Cerf was born in Illinois but grew up in Washington, D.C. Around 1970, he and his family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, where he attended Commonwealth School.
Christopher D. Cerf is an American education administrator and attorney who previously served as the state-appointed Superintendent of the Newark Public Schools in New Jersey.
Christopher Cerf is a writer, composer-lyricist, television and music producer, humorist, and co-founder and president of the educational media and technology.

•

Christopher Cerf (school administrator)

American school administrator (born 1954)

Christopher D. Cerf (born c. 1954)^[1] is an American education administrator and attorney who previously served as the state-appointed Superintendent of the Newark Public Schools in New Jersey.^[2]^[3]^[4]

Early life

Cerf was born in Illinois but grew up in Washington, D.C.^[5] Around 1970, he and his family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, where he attended Commonwealth School.^[6] He earned his undergraduate degree in history from Amherst College in 1977.^[7] He later graduated from Columbia Law School where in his final year he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Columbia Law Review.^[6] While at Columbia, Cerf had also spent his first summer working at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and his second summer at a Wall Street law firm.^[1]

Career

For four years before law school, Cerf taught history at Cincinnati Country Day School, a private high school in Cincinnati, Ohi

•

UPDATED: Christie Reportedly Picks Former NYC Official as Schools Chief

[UPDATE (1:53): Gov. Christie makes it official, announcing he will nominate Cerf as New Jersey’s schools chief and calling him a “widely-respected leader in comprehensive school system reform.”]

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has chosen a former top New York City schools official known for supporting charter schools and demanding better performance from teachers as his next education commissioner, media outlets are reporting.

Christopher D. Cerf, 56, worked as top aide to Chancellor Joel Klein in New York City and is on the board of charter school operator KIPP’s network in Newark, N.J. His KIPP bio also says he served as an associate legal counsel in Bill Clinton’s presidential administration.

Cerf is a Democrat, according to a report in the Star-Ledger, while Christie is a Republican and regarded as something of a favored figure on that party’s national political scene. But the descriptions of Cerf suggest he’s ideologically compatible with Christie on several key fronts. Cerf has pushed for new app

•

Christopher Cerf is an author, record and TV producer, composer-lyricist, semi-bestselling humorist, and co-founder and president of the educational media production company, Sirius Thinking, Ltd., where he co-created and served as Co-Executive Producer of the ten-time Emmy-Award-winning children's literacy education show, "Between the Lions," which recently completed its 10th season on PBS. Cerf has won three Emmys and two Grammys for his musical contributions to "Sesame Street" (for which he has written over 300 songs since the show's debut in 1970); was a senior editor at Random House, where he worked with such diverse authors as George Plimpton, Andy Warhol, Abbie Hoffman, and Dr. Seuss; and was a charter contributing editor of National Lampoon. He has also won two Emmys for outstanding writing in children's television. In 2010, Cerf was awarded the Harold W. McGraw Prize for his contributions to American education. For all his success in TV, music, and publishing, Christopher Cerf is perhaps best known for his work as an author and satirist.