Crystal Forté
Director of Instruction, Crescent City Schools
Joined the Team in 2023
Crystal Forte’ is the Director of Instruction for Crescent City Schools. Crystal joined the network in 2023. Crystal is originally from Houston, Texas, where she received her Bachelor’s in English/Education and Masters in Educational Leadership from the University of Houston. Upon graduation, Crystal began her career as a High School English teacher. As an English teacher, Crystal taught Mainstream, Pre-AP and Inclusion classes for eight years. For these eight years, Crystal consistently led her campus and district as a whole with the highest scores on state assessments with averages of 95% and above of her students scoring at the Commended level each year. As a result, Crystal was called upon to sit on the curriculum writing committee for English I & II courses for the district. During this time, Crystal also partnered with Rice University to lead summer workshops to close reading and writing gaps for middle and high school students.
Upon completing her Masters, Crystal began her journey of fulfilling her passion as she went on to serve in the inner cities of Houston as an Instructional Specialist, before ultimately stepping into the role of Assistant Principal of Instruction at the middle and ultimately high school levels. In each of her roles as an Assistant Principal of Instruction, Crystal led her campus in securing double digit gains in all Core Content areas in State Standardized testing and increasing graduation rates each year through targeted instructional design, strong data analysis, programing and coaching.
In 2019, Crystal received an opportunity to relocate to Baton Rouge as a part of a Charter Expansion initiative in Louisiana in which Crystal served as a Founding Middle School Principal. Within four months of opening this school, Crystal was quickly moved into the role of Executive Principal for both Middle and Elementary School. Crystal served in this role for two years leading both a Founding and Turn-Around campus before joining Crescent City Schools as the Director of Instruction. To her role, Crystal brings a wealth of passion and knowledge in her work of coaching Deans across the network as growing instructional leaders to drive student outcomes, coordinating and leading the School Review process for the network in collaboration with the Chief Academic Officer, selecting TIER 1 curriculum for Social Studies in alignment with the new State Standards, and coaching leaders and teachers in effective curriculum implementation across the network.