New Leaders

New Leaders, Inc.

Founded	2000
Type	Nonprofit organization
Focus	Educational
Location	New York, NY
Key people	Jean Desravines, chief executive officer Ben Fenton, co-founder & chief strategy officer Jonathan Schnur, co-founder & chairman of the board
Slogan	Great leaders = Great schools.
Website	newleaders.org

New Leaders is an American non-profit organization that aims to recruit and train school leaders who focus on improving education results for poor and minority students. It also aims to promote system-level policies and practices that provide support to these leaders. The organization was founded in 2000 as New Leaders for New Schools by Jonathan Schnur and a group of teachers and investors. Research from the Harvard Business School and RAND corporation has found that principals from the New Leaders program have "outperform[ed] their peers".^[1][2] As of 2011, the initiative operates in 12 cities across the United States.

Creation and history

New Leaders for New Schools (now "New Leaders") was founded in 2000 by a group including Jonathan Schnur, former education policy analyst for President Bill Clinton;^[3] Ben Fenton, former management consultant at McKinsey & Co.;^[4] Mike Johnston, a former Teach for America corps member; Allison Gaines, a former New York City public school teacher; and Monique Burns, an education-reform advocate specializing in charter schools.^[5] The idea was developed while the group was attending graduate school at Harvard University as an approach to the impending shortage of school principals nationwide.^[4]

In 2000, the concept was a finalist in the Harvard Business School's annual business plan contest, the first non-profit submission to earn such recognition. Following the contest, New Leaders received funding offers and was able to formally begin operation.^[6]

By 2001, New Leaders had chosen and trained the first 15 participants to serve as urban school principals. That year the program launched in New York City, Chicago and the Aspire Public Schools charter network in Northern California.^[4] The program later expanded into other areas, including Washington, D.C. late in 2001, Memphis in 2004, New Orleans^[7] and Milwaukee in 2007, and Charlotte in 2008.^[8][9] According to the organization, more than 250,000 students in the United States have been enrolled in schools with New Leaders as of 2011, and the program has resulted in measurably raised student achievement and high school graduation rates.^[10]

Function

Mission

According to its mission statement, New Leaders is a non-profit organization that aims to ensure high academic achievement for students in poverty and students of color by training school leaders to drive improvement in schools with low test scores and high poverty rates. It also aims to advance policies and practices that allow these leaders to reach their goals.^[7][11]

Training and placement

New Leaders has developed partnerships with public school systems^[12] and charter schools in selected cities, where the program's participants are placed into leadership-position vacancies in elementary, middle and high schools. The organization relies on nominations to help identify potential "New Leaders", and candidates complete a four-step application process, with emphasis on selecting experienced professionals who demonstrate a variety of strengths, including leadership and communication skills.^[6][13] Each participant is provided with hands-on training through a one-year residency in an urban public school, where they are mentored by a veteran principal.^[14] Following completion of the residency, the participant applies for an open position.^[15] When applicants enroll in the New Leaders principal training program, they are required to a make at least a three-year commitment to serving as a principal or assistant principal in these districts, and they continue to receive support and guidance from New Leaders once they accept a position.^[13]

As of 2011, according to New Leaders' website, it has broadened its program offerings aiming to reach more students and expand its scope. In addition to training new principals, New Leaders has established programs to develop leaders throughout school systems and is also working with school systems to build policies and practices that support those leaders. Its new programs and services include: the "Emerging Leaders" program, providing leadership training for teachers; the "Principal Institute" learning network that provides training and support to New Leader principals once on the job; "Leadership Development Services", providing leadership skills training for administrators; and "Policy and Practice Services", working with school systems to develop supportive leadership policies and practices.^[16]

The organization is funded by private-sector contributions, public sources and venture philanthropists, such as New Profit Inc. and the New Schools Venture Fund.^[6][14]

Impact

In its first eight years, 95% of participants in the New Leaders program went on to hold leadership positions in urban schools.^[6] The RAND Corporation evaluates every principal from the New Leaders program using precise metrics on what improvements students have made and how results in New Leader placement schools compare with other schools. At a substantial majority of these schools, the preliminary findings have shown that there is marked improvement.^[14] The RAND Corporation data shows schools led by New Leader principals have made gains at a higher rate than the national average, and their dropout rate has declined.^[2][10] A report published by New Leaders identified five key factors that it stated appear to be essential in the task of quickly turning around poorly performing public schools. According to the report, principals who have overseen dramatic student improvements have tended to focus on instituting achievement-based learning and teaching, improving the school culture, placing the right people in the right roles, managing the facilities and operations properly, and leading by personal example.^[17]

New Leaders measures the impact on student performance through comparison of their principals' results to other schools in their systems to assess whether students in New Leaders' schools outperform similar students.^[10] It found that graduation rates in New Leaders' high schools are substantially higher than district graduation rates.^[2] New Leaders also focuses on the performance of the program in transforming participating schools, and cites results showing that New Leader schools were twice as likely to have significantly improved student proficiency test scores in 2009, compared with other schools.^[10]

In 2009, New Leaders received an "Innovations in American Government" award from the Ash Institute for Democratic Governance at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government.^[2][8]

Geographic reach

• Baltimore, established 2005
• Charlotte, North Carolina, established 2008
• Chicago, established 2001
• Memphis, Tennessee, established 2004
• Milwaukee, established 2007
• Greater New Orleans, established 2007
• New York City, established 2001
• Newark, established 2008
• Prince George's County, Maryland, established 2007
• San Francisco Bay Area, established 2001
• Washington, D.C, established 2002^[9]

Executive team

As of 2011 the following individuals hold positions on the executive team of New Leaders.^[18]

References

External links

• New Leaders website