The New Leaders Pearson Fellows

In January 2010, the Pearson Foundation announced a three-year commitment to support New Leaders for New Schools’ mission of attracting and preparing outstanding school leaders and supporting the performance of the urban public schools they lead.

The investment—to total $3 million through 2012—will be used in part to train high school principals to become outstanding leaders in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Baltimore. These Pearson Fellows will work to improve student learning and educator leadership, building on New Leaders’ ongoing work in these east-coast districts. 
 
In addition to supporting these educators, the Pearson Foundation and Pearson businesses will work together to support New Leaders for New Schools more broadly. Through 2012 we’ll be helping to expand New Leaders’ slate of regional and national summits; further community building and professional practice among New Leaders’ cohorts; and strengthen New Leaders for New Schools’ research initiatives on the nonprofit’s Urban Excellence Framework™. We’ll also help as we can to scale the organization’s school design practices and professional development opportunities.
 
New Leaders for New Schools was founded in 2000 and works with the districts of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Chicago, Jefferson Parish in Louisiana, Memphis, Milwaukee, Newark, New Orleans and Oakland, in addition to the districts where Pearson Fellows will be located. Currently, there are more than 640 New Leaders working in U.S. schools.

The program was the only nonprofit partnership chosen as Harvard University’s 2009 Innovations in American Government Award winner. It has also been recognized for the last five years as the highest rated social enterprise and nonprofit in the nation by Fast Company magazine, cited specifically for its work in developing educators who can effectively lead students into successful educational and professional lives.