Scott McCue

Founder, Boston Preparatory Charter Public School
Boston, MA
bostonprep.org

As a young man, Scott McCue was certain that he wanted to be a doctor. But, in college, “on a whim,” he tutored children at a nearby housing project—and immediately fell in love with the work.

So instead of medical school, McCue attended Teachers College, Columbia University, and taught social studies for two years at a New York City high school. Discouraged by the staff’s lack of coordination and low expectations for the students, McCue left and took a teaching position at Boston’s Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter School, where he eventually served as dean of students.

Impressed with the organization’s philosophy yet eager to implement some of his own leadership ideas, McCue set out to start his own charter school—with intensive training from the Massachusetts Charter School Resource Center (the predecessor of Building Excellent Schools).

Boston Preparatory Charter Public School opened to its first class of sixth-graders in 2004. With McCue as head of school, Boston Prep added a grade every year for six years, and, in 2011 and 2012, 100 percent of the school’s first two graduating classes were accepted to four-year colleges.

“Boston Prep would not exist if not for BES,” explains McCue. “It was as essential to its birth as it is to its current success.”

In the fall of 2012, McCue started a new venture as chief operating officer at the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education, whose mission is to prepare rookie teachers for their work; he also serves on the board of Boston Prep.

McCue earned his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Harvard University and his master’s in social studies from Teachers College.