Welcome to the New Leaders Newsroom. Featured news articles with excerpts can be found below, along with article listings by year, and program related blog entries.

2009

December 2009

24 December	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 7: New Leaders for New Schools: Living Codes of Conduct New Leaders for New Schools: Living Codes of Conduct, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In this seventh column: A principal's approach to student behavior is an essential part of a school's culture that is felt by every student and teacher every day. When educators from New Leaders for New Schools visited more than 60 schools to develop the Urban Excellence Framework, they found that virtually all schools making gains in academic achievement regarded student behavior as part of a broader "code of conduct." This approach is different from traditional discipline-oriented systems in several important ways.. ASCD Express archive.
18 December	Forbes In Pictures: Revolutionary Educators: Jon Schnur by Nicole Perlroth and Katy Finneran Jon Schnur Founder, New Leaders for New Schools When Schnur started NLNS in 2001, 40% of principals were set retire by decade's end and a dearth of candidates stood to take their place. Schnur set up an alternative certification system for principals, with a rigorous selection process. Candidates go through an intense summer training program that covers everything from management to finances, followed by a one-year residency in an urban school with on-site coaching. Today NLNS is the nation's largest organization for recruiting and training urban principals. He has effectively taken the principal's office--notoriously one big complaint box--and transformed impotent bureaucrats into entrepreneurs. New Leaders are a motley crew of former executives and military officers with one thing in common: They want to turn around poor-performing urban schools. The Rand Corp. evaluates every NLNS principal based on student performance, which it compares with other schools'. Today NLNS graduation rates are substantially higher than district rates. [Read the full story]
17 December	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 6: New Leaders for New Schools: Building a Culture of High Aspirations New Leaders for New Schools: Building a Culture of High Aspirations, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In a series of columns in ASCD Express, the cofounder of New Leaders for New Schools shares promising practices for improving some of the nation's most challenged urban schools. In this sixth column: We've all seen in our work with individual students that they are most likely to achieve academically when they are motivated by their own goals. Teachers everywhere strive to help students make this crucial connection between their long-term aspirations and day-to-day schoolwork. In high-poverty schools, making this connection is particularly vital to student success—and the principal has an important role to play as leader. ASCD Express archive.
10 December	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 5: New Leaders for New Schools: Hiring an Aligned Instructional Staff New Leaders for New Schools: Hiring an Aligned Instructional Staff, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In a series of columns in ASCD Express, the cofounder of New Leaders for New Schools shares promising practices for improving some of the nation's most challenged urban schools. In this fifth column: Teachers spend more time with students and have a more direct influence on their learning than anyone else in the school building. For this reason, highly effective principals treat the recruitment and selection of teachers as a uniquely powerful opportunity and a sacred responsibility to effect change in students' lives... ASCD Express archive.
8 December	Charlotteobserver.com: Wells Fargo gives $6 million to nonprofits Wells Fargo gives $6 million to nonprofits, by Eric Frazier Wells Fargo officials stunned 15 recession-weary Charlotte nonprofits this morning with some welcome gifts: $6 million in checks aimed at helping them survive the downturn and push new projects forward...gifts include: $500,000 to Mecklenburg Citizens for Public Education's School Leadership Fund. The money will be split to support New Leaders for New Schools, a principal-training program, and Parent University, a parent-education effort.
6 December	Washington Post: Testing success creates own challenge Testing success creates own challenge, by Bill Turque, Co-founder, Washington Post Staff Writer Terry Dade, the 33-year-old principal of Tyler Elementary in Southeast Washington, freely describes himself as a "data geek" who shares Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's educational creed: Digging relentlessly into student test scores, diagnosing weaknesses and tailoring teaching to address them can ultimately lift a school's academic performance... ...Tyler's recent history suggests that turnover at the top can produce big swings in scores. Under former principal Michelle Pierre-Farid, the school had big gains from 2004 to 2007, with proficiency spiking from 13.5 to 57.5 percent in reading and more than doubling to 44.3 percent in math. But when Pierre-Farid left for a job with the Friendship charter schools, scores nose-dived in 2007-08. Her successor, Pedro Cartagena, was not retained by Rhee. Dade, a graduate of New Leaders for New Schools, a principal training program favored by Rhee, replaced him...
November 2009

24 November	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 4: New Leaders for New Schools: Forming Aligned Instructional Leadership Teams New Leaders for New Schools: Forming Aligned Instructional Leadership Teams, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In a series of columns in ASCD Express, the cofounder of New Leaders for New Schools shares promising practices for improving some of the nation's most challenged urban schools. In this fourth column: Principals cannot lead schools to make breakthrough achievement gains on their own: the support of an aligned instructional leadership team is crucial. ASCD Express archive.
12 November	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 3: New Leaders For New Schools - Supporting Teachers Supporting Teachers, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In a series of columns in ASCD Express, the cofounder of New Leaders for New Schools shares promising practices for improving some of the nation's most challenged urban schools. This third column in our series about principal leadership in urban schools shows how principals can support high-quality teaching by visiting classrooms to support teachers' professional growth. ASCD Express archive.
4 November	Crisis in School Leadership Seen Brewing in California Policy Experts Say State Lacks Comprehensive Human-Resources Policies for Principals Education Week, by Lesli A. Maxwell In California, where school budgets are being slashed and achievement remains stubbornly low in many districts, there is mounting concern that the supply of principals is too limited to manage the financial and academic challenges facing public schools...
October 2009

29 October	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 2: New Leaders For New Schools - Seeing the Big Picture Seeing the Big Picture, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In a series of columns in ASCD Express, the cofounder of New Leaders for New Schools shares promising practices for improving some of the nation's most challenged urban schools. In this second column: New Leaders for New Schools studied its own leaders in more than 60 schools to develop the Urban Excellence Framework, a road map of principals' actions that have moved schools from crisis to stability. ASCD Express archive.
28 October	Baltimore School District on Upward Swing, By Lesli A. Maxwell Education Week Baltimore: Two years ago, only 150 students attended Holabird Elementary, then a K-5 school in the southeastern corner of this city. Competition from charters and from regular public schools in nearby Baltimore County had drained families from Holabird, a chronic underperformer. So when Andrés A. Alonso, the chief executive officer of the Baltimore city schools, began last year to allocate money to schools based on their students' needs, Holabird stood to be hit hard. Achievement had started to rise, but its small roster put the school at risk of losing six teachers unless more students enrolled.
15 October	ASCD Express: vol5 Column 1: New Leaders For New Schools - First, Believe in Students First, Believe in Students, by Ben Fenton, Co-founder, New Leaders for New Schools In a series of columns this fall, the cofounder of New Leaders for New Schools shares insights about preparing and supporting principals who've taken on the challenge of turning around some of the nation's most challenged urban schools. This first column highlights effective aspects of the New Leaders training program. ASCD Express archive.
September 2009

15 September AWARD	New Leaders For New Schools Wins Innovations In American Government Award Harvard Kennedy School's Ash Institute Honors Initiative to Improve Academic Achievement in Inner City Schools The Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University announced New Leaders for New Schools in partnership with the Chicago Public School District as a 2009 Innovations in American Government winner. New Leaders for New Schools is one of six government innovations honored (out of 1,000 applicants) and the only nonprofit to win in the 20 year history of the award.
9 September	Developing Principals Who Create Dramatic Improvements, Jon Schnur with host Gail Connelly NAESP Radio Tune-In to NAESP Radio! The National Association of Elementary School Principals and BAM Radio Network have partnered to bring you NAESP Radio. Executive Director Gail Connelly hosts the program focused on the topics you really care about.
August 2009

29 July	9 will fill a different mold for principals - New Leaders for New Schools launches Charlotteobserver.com By Ann Doss Helms When Alison Harris was a sophomore at Spelman College, she tutored students her own age still slogging through high school in Atlanta. That's where she developed a passion for improving urban schools, a path that took her to graduate school at Harvard University and two years with Teach for America in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. Now she's among nine pioneers in a partnership between CMS and the New York-based New Leaders for New Schools to recruit and train 50 principals for struggling urban schools. At 25, Harris is the youngest of a crew that brings experience in charter schools, nonprofit leadership, finance, insurance and the military.
July 2009

29 July	Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools welcomes its first cohort of talented educators for New Leaders for New Schools Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools News
March 2009

6 March	6 charter schools honored nationally Boston Globe - New England in brief Six Massachusetts charter schools were among 21 nationwide singled out for recognition yesterday by a national nonprofit that analyzes charter school achievement. The Effective Practice Incentive Community, or EPIC, grant program honored Community Day Charter Public School in Lawrence, Boston Preparatory Charter Public School in Hyde Park, Roxbury Preparatory Charter School in Roxbury, Boston Collegiate Charter School in Dorchester, MATCH Charter Public School in Boston, and Prospect Hill Academy Upper School in Cambridge. The organization will give individual principals, teachers, and instructional staff from the schools awards totaling an estimated $735,000. EPIC considered 144 schools for the award.
6 March	Fort Lauderdale charter school gets national award, By Hannah Sampson The Miami Herald A Fort Lauderdale charter school has earned national recognition for improving student achievement. The Charter School of Excellence, which serves students from kindergarten through fifth grade, received the highest award from the Effective Practice Incentive Community, part of an organization called New Leaders for New Schools. The school was recognized for testing gains that students showed in the 2007-08 school year.
6 March	Oakland teachers get praise -- and moola, By Katy Murphy The Education Report - Oakland Tribune Blog Teachers at Monarch Academy and at Lighthouse Community Charter School's secondary program (grades 7-12), will get more than a pat on the back for the academic strides that their students made last year. They will share $67,000 and $29,000, respectively, thanks to an award from the Effective Practice Incentive Community (rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?), a new initiative of New Leaders for New Schools. It amounts to roughly $3,500 per teacher.
6 March	Charter schools honored with cash awards City Charter, Propel leaders lauded for student success, By Eleanor Chute Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Teachers and principals at City Charter High School and Propel McKeesport are among 21 charter schools nationwide who will receive monetary awards for their success in increasing student achievement. The awards are part of the Effective Practice Incentive Community initiative of New Leaders for New Schools, a nonprofit organization that focuses on school leadership. In addition to private donors and schools, the organization has a grant from the federal Teacher Incentive Fund, aimed at rewarding performance. In the EPIC awards for charter schools, each principal of the two local schools will receive $8,000, each assistant principal $5,000 and each member of the instructional staff -- whether a teacher or an assistant -- $3,000. Each school also will work with New Leaders for New Schools to share their effective practices or leadership models with other educators.

2008

December 2008

10 December	Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) Recruiting 50 New Principals, [New Leaders for New Schools, Charlotte] Charlotte Observer, By Eric Frazier [New Leaders for New Schools] a nationally-recognized nonprofit is joining forces with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) to place 50 high-quality principals in some of the county's most troubled schools in the next six years. Superintendent Peter Gorman and others described the project in historic terms, calling it "an enormous stride forward" that will help turn around the lowest-achieving CMS schools.
October 2008

8 October	Education Week: New Project Details Low-Income Schools' Avenues to Success [ EPIC, New Leaders ] Education Week, by Stephen Sawchuk The Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) - a Web portal unveiled in October by the New York City-based principal-training organization New Leaders for New Schools - contains in-depth analyses of low-income schools that, like Noyes, are producing strong student-learning gains. The case studies consist of recorded testimony, video clips documenting instruction, and artifacts, such as lesson plans, culled straight from the schools.
September 2008

8 September	Education Week: Opening a School Draws on All of Founders' Skills [Miller-McCoy Academy, New Orleans] Education Week, by Lesli A. Maxwell Hard to Resist - A little more than a year ago, Hardrick and Sanders weren't even considering leaving their jobs as principals in Memphis, Tenn., where both were trained by the New Leaders for New Schools program
August 2008

26 August	USA Today: Superintendent of New Orleans (Paul Vallas) watched by other city schools USA TODAY, by Greg Toppo Since becoming New Orleans Recovery School District superintendent, Paul Vallas Vallas has changed pretty much everything, all at once, with little opposition...
26 August	A Teachable Moment New York Times - Magazine When Tony Petite enrolled in elementary school in Denver in the fall of 2005, he quickly discovered that...
July 2008

14 July	HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans After Katrina Harvard Business School Working Knowledge Newslettern When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast region of the United States in August 2005...
11 July	Some DC Principals Credit Rhee for Big Gains in Test Scores The Washington Post Principals at some D.C. schools that demonstrated a dramatic increase on this year's student achievement...
10 July	Middle School Principal Targets Test Scores As Priority Gazette.net Maryland Community News Though he is a self-proclaimed "career changer," Omar Gobourne's path seems to be pretty circular, with its start and end, thus far, in education...
8 July	How to Staff a School Blog: Washington City Paper - City Desk At least two dozen schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools system, including two large high schools where test scores have been at or below the MPS average...
6 July	Many Milwaukee Public Schools to Get New Principals Milwaukee Journal Sentinel At least two dozen schools in the Milwaukee Public Schools system, including two large high schools where test scores have been at or below the MPS average...
6 July	New Promise for Public Service International Herald Tribune One American presidential candidate was shaped by his family's rich heritage in the U.S. Navy and the other...
5 July	Rhee Employs 'Army of Believers:' Stakes High for D.C. Schools Chief's 45 Handpicked Principals The Washington Post Rikki Hunt Taylor is filled with fire and educational jargon. When the Takoma Educational Center's new principal...
1 July	Borsuk's Interview with Jon Schnur [Podcast/Audio] Milkwaukee Journal Sentinel Journal Sentinel education reporter Alan Borsuk chats with Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of New Leaders for New Schools Jon Schnur.
June 2008

20 June The UEF	Key Insights of the Urban Excellence Framework: Defining an Urban Principalship to Drive Dramatic Achievement Gains [PDF] The Alliance for Excellent Education and New Leaders for New Schools' Report Briefing and Panel Discussion A special briefing and panel discussion of a recent New Leaders for New Schools report, Key Insights of the Urban Excellence Framework: Defining an Urban Principalship to Drive Dramatic Gains... View Event Summary and Video Footage
May 2008

22 May	Oakland Students Enthusiastic About Tests San Francisco Chronicle Fifth-grader Ruth Preciado stood in a long line at recess with about 40 other students at Oakland's Monarch Academy...
March 2008

18 March	New-Leaders Group Offers Initial Insight Into Effective Practice Education Week School leaders who are turning around low-performing schools use three distinctly different leadership strategies for early, middle, and late-stage improvement...
9 March	How Many Billionaires Does it Take to Fix a School System? The New York Times For as long as wealthy Americans have given their money away, education has been a leading recipient of their largess...
February 2008

15 February	Excellence in a New York Hispanic School El Diario Directing the Dual Language Middle School on the Upper West Side of Manhattan posed a serious challenge to Claudia Aguirre...
February	Announcing the 2008 Cahn Fellow Principals Cahnfellows.org The Cahn Fellows Program for Distinguished New York City Principals at Teachers College, Columbia University celebrates the 2008 cohort of exemplary leaders…
8 February	Helping Students Climb Same Steep Path NY Daily News The Brooklyn Latin School's academic requirements sound like more like college requirements than those you would expect at a two-year-old New York City public school…

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