America Achieves has partnered with New Leaders, a national nonprofit focused on developing transformational school leaders, to produce this series of videos focused on school leadership. The principals featured were identified by New Leaders’ Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) awards program as exemplar leaders of high-poverty schools that have demonstrated impressive gains in student achievement.

Great school leaders inspire and support teachers to seek out and use data to help every student learn and succeed at high levels. These principals create structures for teachers to fully dig into useful data and turn that information into action. That may mean revising lesson plans and curriculum, when necessary, in real-time. After viewing the videos below, please read the New Leaders policy recommendations for how to support effective school leaders in your state or district.

Community Day Charter School — The Power of Real-Time Data. Principal Mary Chance likes to say, “Data without action is useless.” This school makes data useful. She brings this motto and actual practices to life at her Lawrence, MA, school by making sure that her teachers receive assessment data immediately and that they are empowered to make swift adjustments to their teaching when that is what their students need.

Steck Elementary School — Students Setting Big Goals. Principal La Dawn Baity believes in empowering her Denver students to own their academic success. She encourages teachers to create tools and structures that help students set their own goals and assess their own progress.

Data: A Guide for Student Learning. School leaders at Morey Middle School in Denver and LPS Hayward in California are using data to support significant changes to instruction and teacher practice. These principals use data to create a shared focus and culture of teamwork across the teaching staff and to empower students by including them in the goal-setting process.

Additional Resources:

School Profiles

Preparing and Advancing School Leaders

Download the Policy Guide