Young Whan Choi, Manager of Performance Assessments, Oakland Unified School District (OUSD), supports schools to provide high quality instruction through a performance system that incorporates career technical education and is aligned to a rigorous and meaningful capstone project. He also directs the K-12 Ethnic Studies program in OUSD with a focus on developing and scaling the implementation of a 9th grade Ethnic Studies curriculum.
He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Brown University, with a B.A. in History. He earned a Master’s in Social Studies Teaching from Teachers College and has been a public school teacher in New York City, Providence, RI, and Oakland, CA. During his ten years in the classroom, he has developed expertise in culturally relevant classroom instruction, curriculum design, and work-based learning. He has since received a Master's in Instructional Leadership from the Reach Institute.
He is passionate about ethnic studies and civic engagement and how schools can support the political development of disenfranchised students. He has developed a national online Ethnic Studies curriculum and directed the Educating for Democracy in the Digital Age initiative - a districtwide scale-up of civic engagement learning opportunities. His writing on education has appeared in various publications including the Washington Post's AnswerSheet, East Bay Times, EdSource, and UCLA's Xchange journal.
He is also the producer and host of The Young and the Woke podcast.