Chris Claflin is the Area Superintendent for the Greater Houston and Permian Basin regions. He has over 23 years of experience in public education in Texas with over nine years of experience as a principal of grade 6 – 12 schools and over eight years of experience as a principal manager, leading to growth and achievement in multiple CMOs and districts.
As a principal at YES Prep Public Schools, he led the YES Prep Southwest campus to a National Blue Ribbon distinction, being ranked in the top 5 out of 330 middle schools in the Houston area and achieving A to B ratings from Children at Risk at two different schools, and 100% of high school graduates being accepted to a four-year college or university. As a principal, he also launched YES Prep’s largest campus and first campus serving the Sunnyside and Third Ward neighborhoods, recruiting over 300 students to register in the first year. As a principal manager and interim regional superintendent at KIPP Texas Public Schools, he coached principals of schools to move from needs improvement to meeting standard with all portfolio schools achieving a Texas Education Agency (TEA) rating of A or B by the third year of management.
As an executive director, he launched Green Dot Public Schools’ first and only region in Texas through an 1882 partnership with Beaumont Independent School District, with the school moving from an F to a C in the Closing the Gaps Domain in the TEA accountability system after the first year of operation. As an executive director of instruction with Houston Independent School District, the eighth-largest school system in the country, he managed schools, primarily in the Chávez high school feeder pattern during the first two years of management via dependency of the state of Texas – leading to strong growth in accountability ratings for all the schools managed.
Chris’s educational journey includes a Bachelor of Science from George Washington University, a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and a Master of Education in Educational Leadership from Sam Houston State University. Currently, Chris is engaged in an EdD program in K-12 Professional Leadership at the University of Houston. Chris lives in the Houston area with his wife, Petra, also a career long educator, and two children, Eli and Mica. They enjoy being outdoors, birding, going to the beach, swimming, and being together.
