Sam Chaltain

Sam Chaltain is a national educator and organizational change consultant. Previously, he was the National Director of the Forum for Education and Democracy, a DC-based education think tank. He is also the founding director of the Five Freedoms Project, a national organization that equips local educators with the leadership development, coaching and support they need to address two of America’s greatest challenges – improving the performance of our public schools, and strengthening the quality of our civic discourse.

Chaltain blogs regularly on his own site, www.samchaltain.com, and on the Huffington Post.

Education and work history

Before founding the Five Freedoms Project, Sam spent five years at the First Amendment Center as the co-director of the First Amendment Schools program, a national K-12 reform initiative. Chaltain came to the Center from the public school system of New York City, where he taught high school English and History. He also spent four years teaching the same subjects at a private school in Brooklyn.

Sam’s first teaching experience was in Beijing, China, where he joined the faculty of the Foreign Languages department at Beijing Normal University as a visiting lecturer. He taught two American History & Literature courses to third-year undergraduates.

Chaltain’s writings about his work have appeared in both magazines and newspapers, including Education Week and USA Today. He is also the author or co-author of five books: Faces of Learning: 50 Inspiring Stories of What Works in Education (Wiley 2011); We Must Not Be Afraid to be Free: Stories About Free Expression in America (Oxford University Press, 2010); American Schools: The Art of Creating a Democratic Learning Community (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009); First Freedoms: A Documentary History of First Amendment Rights in America (Oxford 2006); and The First Amendment in Schools (ASCD, 2003).

Selected publications

Books

• We Must Not Be Afraid to be Free: Stories About Free Expression in America (Oxford University Press, 2010);
• American Schools: The Art of Creating a Democratic Learning Community (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009);
• First Freedoms: A Documentary History of First Amendment Rights in America (Oxford 2006);
• The First Amendment in Schools (ASCD, 2003).

External links

• Five Freedoms Project