New Leaders: Giving Tuesday

Wouldn’t it be great if there were a team of leaders in every school ready to lead students to success?

What if these leaders already exist–and they need your support?

I hope you will join me in supporting New Leaders, a national non-profit where I am a proud staff member.

At New Leaders, we recruit outstanding educators and develop them into transformational principals and leaders for students in high-poverty schools.

One such leader is Dr. Eric Blake, the principal of Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Early College High School. Since Eric became the principal in 2008, he has focused relentlessly on ensuring that his students graduate from high school prepared to be successful in college. By the end of students’ tenure at STAR, they are equipped with not only a diploma, but also a substantial number of college credits that will prepare them to enter college as advanced and confident learners.

The hard work of Eric and his staff is evident: STAR has had a graduation rate of over 90% for the last three years, including 98.6% in 2012 – far above the city average of 65%. STAR is also one of the few schools in its district that is closing the achievement gap in reading and math.

However, when reflecting on his success Eric states, “the 98.6% grad rate is not good enough. We need to get to 100%.”

Every student deserves an Eric in his or her school. We are proud of the more than 1,600 New Leaders we have trained serving over 350,000 children in high-need neighborhoods across the country. But there are many more children in need of a great leader. By 2020, New Leaders will develop 3,000 leaders to prepare 1 million students for success in college, careers, and citizenship.

Our New Leaders need your support. This holiday season, I hope you will support New Leaders by investing in training more leaders like Eric.