Leading Educators

Curriculum adoption is only the beginning. In its project REACH Higher, Together, the Center for Public Research and Leadership highlights what happens after a school district chooses a high-quality curriculum—followed by investments in professional learning, leadership development, assessment, and community engagement to improve student outcomes. We’re proud to see Overdeck Family Foundation grantees supporting this work: ▪️ Teaching Lab, Robin Hood, and Zearn helped NYC District 11 move toward shared curricula, stronger coaching, and clearer ways to understand student progress. ▪️ Teaching Lab also supported NYC District 25 as teachers prepared for a districtwide literacy rollout. ▪️ Leading Educators helped Charleston County School District define its districtwide coaching model as they moved from one-time professional development to ongoing, embedded learning. ▪️ Tennessee SCORE and Accelerate supported Knox County’s work to make reading interventions more coherent with core instruction. ▪️ EdReports helped inform Charlotte Mecklenburg’s curriculum selection process. ▪️ Khan Academy was used as one of Guilford County Schools’ supplemental tools supporting math fluency and concept development alongside shared core math curricula. Read the full report and collection of case studies: https://lnkd.in/e3UWkURq

The last two weeks there were a lot of headlines about reading scores declining--particularly since the pandemic--but you may have missed that Detroit Public Schools Community District is actually one of the few districts on the rise! The 2026 Education Recovery Scorecard, a joint research effort from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford University and the Center for Education Policy Research at Harvard University, ranked Detroit Public Schools Community District in the top 10 percent of school districts for how much our students are learning each year. In fact, our students are outpacing the state of Michigan, and 91% of districts nationwide. This is a huge testament to the systematic work we've done to attract and retain excellent teachers (including teachers we are growing internally), a laser-like focus on strong materials and accompanying professional learning, and an attention to data at the classroom, school and district level to drive continuous improvement. https://lnkd.in/dHXkRQtn

When I walk into a classroom, I have one question on my mind: What are the children who aren’t learning the math being taught actually doing? That’s it. I am not looking at 30 indicators. Not because the other things don’t matter, but because those children are the signal. They’re telling us something the tool isn’t capturing. Here’s the harder question I keep coming back to: why are we so good at building systems to fill gaps, and so slow to ask why we keep creating them? THAT is the question driving the work we are building at Leading Educators. We have been working to identify the 2-3 mathematical progressions at each grade level that carry the most significant downstream impact on children’s access to future math. We call them Pivotal Progressions. Let’s stop designing for the gaps we created, and start designing against them.

We’re excited to be a RPPL (Research Partnership for Professional Learning) grantee, exploring how GenAI tools can accelerate the impact of teacher professional learning for multilingual youth! It’s an honor to be selected as one of the seven awarded studies.

🚨I am proud to share that The School District of Philadelphia's students achieved the highest learning rates in grades 3 - 8 compared to the top 25 largest districts included in the study over the past three years, according to updated Harvard Graduate School of Education-Stanford University Graduate School of Education Education Recovery Scorecard! 🚨 📈 Between 2022–2025, our students gained an average of 1.13 grade levels per year — outperforming comparable districts across Pennsylvania and ranking ahead of 84% of districts nationwide. 📚 This progress demonstrates what can happen when we work together and strategically invest in our students and educators. This success belongs to our students, educators, principals, staff, families, and community partners who show up every day for Philadelphia’s young people. Council of the Great City Schools AASA, The School Superintendents Association Chiefs for Change

Thrilled to be opening applications for Year 2 of our Rural Fellowship program! Join us- Nicholas Lannon Cains, M.Ed and team- for an impactful and genuinely joyful experience focused on strengthening literacy outcomes and building coherent assessment systems within MTSS. Together, we’ll dig into the practical work of aligning instruction, intervention, and assessment to better support students and educators, while learning alongside a thoughtful community of rural principals committed to meaningful change. Excited for the next cohort and all that’s ahead! #LiteracyLeadership #MTSS #ScienceOfReading #EducationLeadership #RuralEducation

I'm so excited about the launch of my new project with Leading Educators: The Rural Literacy Leaders Fellowship! Applications are now open for this fully funded opportunity for elementary school rural leaders who want to optimize their literacy systems in the coming year. Tag a rural principal in your network, repost this opportunity to your networks, or forward it directly to a district leader we should connect with! Learn more and apply by June 15th: https://lnkd.in/eBYZ4fUg

It's been an honor to lead the inaugural Rural Literacy Leaders Fellowship this past year. Over the past year, I'm watched rural school leaders make powerful shifts in how they approach literacy instruction, using assessment more strategically and aligning small group instruction that is targeted to student needs. That's why I'm excited to share that Leading Educators is accepting applications for the second cohort of the Rural Literacy Leaders Fellowship, a fully funded opportunity for rural principals ready to strengthen literacy outcomes, instructional leadership, and sustainable school systems. If you’re a rural principal—or know one doing incredible work—I hope you’ll take a look (and help spread the word!). Applications are open through June 15! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/esDGSTXw