What if every child attended a great public school?

What if there were a team of leaders in each school with the skills to support academic excellence for ALL students?

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

This holiday season, I hope you will join me in supporting New Leaders, a national non-profit where I am a proud staff member, as part of Giving Tuesday, a national movement beginning December 3rd to encourage people to give back during the holidays.

We at New Leaders recruit outstanding educators from across the country and develop them into transformational principals and leaders for students in high-poverty schools.

One such leader is Abdullah Zaki of Kelly Miller Middle School in Washington, DC. When Abdullah arrived as principal in 2010, academic achievement was low, and truancy and suspensions were common. Abdullah used his experience gleaned from over 15 years as an educator in the DC Public Schools to focus on supporting teachers to use data to make decisions about teaching, providing quality professional development opportunities for teachers, and establishing a culture of equity, excellence and high expectations for all students. Under Abdullah’s leadership, truancy has dropped from 30% to 1% and suspensions have dropped by over 50%. Over a three-year period, Kelly Miller students’ scores have increased more than 30% in math and more than 15% in reading.

Every student in our country deserves an Abdullah in his or her school. The great news is that New Leaders already serve 250,000 children and their families in high-need neighborhoods across the country, and we’re growing to serve 500,000 children over the next three years. These New Leaders need your support.

I hope you will support New Leaders this holiday season by investing in training more leaders like Abdullah. Any amount will make a difference. I believe that supporting education is the most important thing we can do for our children and for our country—and that making sure every school has a great leader is the best way to start.

I deeply appreciate any contribution you can make to support New Leaders and help change the lives of kids across the nation.