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Summary
Located: San Francisco, CA
Founded: 2000
Mission: It is our mission to ensure high academic achievement for every student by attracting and preparing outstanding leaders and supporting the performance of the urban public schools they lead at scale.
Story: When [Jonathan] Schnur started NLNS in 2001, 40% of principals were set to retire by decade’s end and a dearth of candidates stood to take their place. Schnur set up an alternative certification system for principals, with a rigorous selection process. Candidates go through an intense summer training program that covers everything from management to finances, followed by a one-year residency in an urban school with on-site coaching. Today NLNS is the nation’s largest organization for recruiting and training urban principals. He has effectively taken the principal’s office–notoriously one big complaint box–and transformed impotent bureaucrats into entrepreneurs. New Leaders are a motley crew of former executives and military officers with one thing in common: They want to turn around poor-performing urban schools. The Rand Corporation evaluates every NLNS principal based on student performance, which it compares with other schools’. Today NLNS graduation rates are substantially higher than district rates. (Source)
Expert Reviews
Evidence of Impact Summary
New Leaders has a research-backed theory of change: the principal is the driving force of a school and sets the tone for student achievement, professional development, parental expectations, and school culture. Some of the strongest principals in the Oakland Charter community are from New Leaders and also has multiple principals in Oakland Unified traditional schools. In both charters and traditional schools, NLNS principals have outperformed comparison schools consistently on API. See expert comments.
Organization Strengths Summary:
Experts repeatedly cite New Leaders for New Schools’ ability to recruit and retain quality talent alongside their effective training method. Other elements marked as strengths include leadership and community relations. See expert comments.
Areas for Improvement Summary:
Scale is most-often cited as an area for improvement. While New Leaders has been roundly praised for recruitment and training, high-attrition was noted by experts as a concern. On a related note, experts believed the organization could do more to engage its Alumni network. See expert comments.
Financial Data
Overhead Ratio: n/a
Total Revenue: $41,965,516
