Congratulations on your new roles. As you begin to lay out your education agenda, The Fund team and I聽wanted to take this opportunity to share our hopes for a successful term with you.

Your statements on the campaign trail indicate school choice will be a priority for your administration. School choice, at its core, is about quality. After all, what is choice without quality schools from which to choose?

We, too, believe that every child should have access to a quality education. But we encourage you to consider the key to reaching this goal: Research and our experience tell us that quality public schools require great leadership.

Among school-related impacts on student learning, principal leadership is second only to teaching and accounts for 25 percent of the total school influence on a child鈥檚 academic performance. This is because 鈥� like the leaders in all industries 鈥� principals are a major contributor to the retention or turnover of their teachers. Our best principals keep great teachers, even through times of resource reduction.

What鈥檚 more, principal leadership is a cost-effective investment. On average, a principal impacts 550 students and 30 teachers. Their leadership shapes overall school quality, a student鈥檚 learning experience, and whether or not great teachers stay. In fact, we know as a critical factor in their decision to stay at a school.

Put simply: No great school exists without great leadership. As such, we implore you to prioritize principal leadership as a critical component to quality choice.

海角直播provides a great example for creating the conditions in which principals can lead. Unlike many other cities, 海角直播principals have significant authority to hire teachers for their schools, more flexibility to differentiate the support they provide to teachers, and the ability to develop both a budget and school schedule that best meet the needs of their schools and communities.

Even with limited resources, Chicago鈥檚 public schools demonstrate why these conditions matter. In the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), known as 鈥渢he nation鈥檚 report card,鈥� CPS was one of only three large urban districts to show growth on all four tested subjects. Notably, CPS eighth grade students achieved the highest growth in math nationwide. In addition, CPS鈥� graduation rate continues to rise, up to 74 percent from 57 percent in 2011.

Clearly, 海角直播principals are making a difference in students鈥� lives.

We鈥檝e highlighted just of great school leadership on , and we share our programmatic work to inspire other cities to pursue similar work. Recently, and announced interesting initiatives, demonstrating the growing momentum around investing in school leadership as a powerful and efficient way to grow quality public schools.

We hope that you will recognize the opportunity before you and dedicate dollars and time toward our country鈥檚 public school leaders. We鈥檙e here to support you in your efforts. After all, we know that if you succeed, our students and our country will benefit for generations to come.

Heather Y. Anichini
President & CEO
The 海角直播

In 2016, to make 海角直播the best city in the country to lead a public school. While we鈥檙e not quite there yet, we made key strides to our goal.

To start, we helped expand the聽聽to 25 members, including five charter school leaders. We also conducted our fourth聽, connecting 48 principal-led school teams with experts from around the country.

This fall, we became a founding member of聽, a collaborative, citywide effort to ensure a great principal in every public school. You can learn more and join our efforts and聽聽(including many of you!) by visiting聽.

Finally, with feedback from 73 percent of Chicago鈥檚 public school principals, we unveiled our 2016 School Leadership Report,聽, which provides recommendations for improving principal hiring and placement and features profiles of six schools and organizations already doing this work well.

The report garnered ample media coverage, including an editorial by聽, pieces by the聽听补苍诲听, and mentions on CBS, NBC, Fox, WBEZ and WGN Radio. We also joined 海角直播principals Nate Pietrini and James Gray on their podcast,聽, to discuss the report.

Though proud of this progress, we know we have more to do to reach our goals. We look forward to聽the work ahead, and we hope you’ll join us.

Wishing you a joyful holiday season,
The Fund Team

PS: We’re taking next week off, but check back on Friday, January 6 when we return with new posts!

This fall, Meghna will enter her second year teaching fifth grade in South Minneapolis. In addition to teaching, Meghna is involved with advocacy organizations such as Educators 4 Excellence and MinnCAN in Minnesota. Some of her favorite pastimes include trying out new recipes, exploring the city and reading.

Due to her experiences in the classroom and interest in advocacy work, Meghna has a deep passion for reducing educational disparities. Her interest in this work stemmed from working with communities and families in Minnesota who did not have equitable access to resources. She is excited to continue upon this work with The Fund to ensure all students have access to resources by sustaining high-quality leaders in schools.

Meghna is excited to take her experiences at The Fund back to Minnesota to improve outcomes for students. Over the next month she hopes to learn more about the 海角直播community and the work it takes to ensure students are receiving the education they deserve.

This summer she will be collaborating with team members at The Fund to launch a new series of that aim to create a space that will allow some of the city鈥檚 highest performing principals to share their best practices and聽increase retention across the city.

Kerease聽graduated from Morgan Park High and Northwestern University, where she received her degree in both Social Policy and African American Studies. She has served in a number of leadership positions from Chapter President of her sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Inc., to President of Minorities in the Pursuit of Law.

Upon graduation, Kerease joined Teach For America (TFA) and taught fourth聽grade in Detroit. She has worked in a series of fields that range from an operations consultant at a microfinance organization in Mayuge, Uganda to Education and Opportunity Intern for the Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice.

Kerease聽was introduced to The Fund as TFA鈥檚 partner program: Leadership for Educational Equity. She hopes to continue her career in the field of education policy and is extremely excited to learn and work alongside the amazing team at The Fund.

Trent is from one of Chicago鈥檚 historically Black neighborhoods and grew up聽with a passion for knowledge and learning about the world beyond his community formerly聽known as the Ida B. Wells. He is a proud alum of 海角直播 (CPS) who excelled聽through numerous programs that not only helped him understand his role in academia, but also聽his admiration and love for teaching.

Only after attending DePaul University in 海角直播did his appreciation for education聽amplify through the domains of the Communication department. Toward the end of his junior聽year, he was accepted into an intensive summer program in Rome, Italy for Italian Culture and聽Film Studies, his first experience abroad. This program redefined his fascination with traveling聽and brought to the forefront the importance behind intercultural immersion. A year later after聽graduating from DePaul in 2013, he joined the ranks of the Center for Teaching in Learning in聽China (CTLC) as an English Instructor in the city of Shenzhen, Guangdong for two years. Upon聽his return stateside, he decided to start applying for graduate programs for the 2017-18 academic聽year.

Having recently been accepted as a New Sector Summer Fellow with The Fund, his聽knowledge of the CPS system will surely improve. Ultimately, he desires to gain a deeper聽understanding behind the details of what drives a great school in exceeding beyond the norm and聽how rising leaders, like himself, can help maintain and support such achievements.

Hailey was born and raised in Chicago. She is a rising senior at Washington University in St.聽Louis majoring in urban studies and anthropology and minoring in American culture studies.聽During the academic year, Hailey mentors freshmen and plans her school鈥檚 TEDxWustl and聽OWN IT conferences.

This summer, Hailey will work with The Fund鈥檚 other Fellows to interview principals throughout聽the city and create news posts, profiles and feature videos to tell their stories for The Fund.聽Hailey loves meeting new people and believes that each new interaction exposes her to fresh聽ideas, interests, and inspirations. This world of unknowns encourages her to continuously learn聽from others and seek out new adventures.

By meeting with Chicago鈥檚 principals, she hopes to聽understand the current education climate in the city and recognize the work principals are doing聽each day. She is excited to dive into Chicago鈥檚 public education scene, and聽聽looks forward to helping improve聽海角直播public schools alongside The Fund鈥檚 dedicated team!

However, observing a predictable problem doesn鈥檛 solve it. If our shared goal is to find shared solutions, there are three important points missed in the recent media maelstrom about high-profile departures:

1. We lose too many good principals every year. , 54 principals* 鈥� out of more than 500 principals in CPS-operated schools 鈥� retired or resigned as of June 22. We lost 46 over the same time period last year and 49 in 2014. CPS leaders have made a valid point: the lack of a budget may drive those numbers up before the school year starts. Parents and other community members have also rightly pointed out that our city鈥檚 best leaders need stable, reliable resource projections much earlier every If we are interested in stable leadership for the long term, solving for this year鈥檚 budget crisis is a necessary but insufficient step. We need a predictable revenue in line with CPS鈥� needs so that principals can plan securely for the futures of their school communities.

2. We have to fight to keep them, starting now. You don鈥檛 need to look beyond Lake View High Schools鈥檚 Scott Grens and to see that local and national districts are calling to offer our city鈥檚 best principals predictability, stability and promotions. Programs like the 海角直播Principals Fellowship and the Independent Schools Principal (ISP) program 鈥� recently highlighted by the 鈥� have helped to keep 57 top principals in their roles over the last two years. Principals like Tara Shelton at South Loop, Armando Rodriguez at Goode and Michelle Willis at Gillespie are staying because the civic and philanthropic communities are investing in their success through these programs long before they receive that first recruiter鈥檚 call. Those efforts, along with others that meet specific principal needs 鈥� such as increased autonomy and differentiated support 鈥� should grow rapidly to meet demand and to allow CPS to actively compete with other communities for the best talent.

3. We have to partner closely with Local School Councils. Local School Councils (LSCs) are the elected bodies responsible for hiring and renewing principal contracts in Chicago. As , some LSCs are struggling with how best to fill the vacant roles. Of the 54 openings, half have been filled for next year. We can all do more to help the remaining half make the right decisions in time for the start of a new year. This starts with efforts to make sure newly-elected LSC members are trained and receive supports in early July so that they can immediately engage in hiring conversations with their communities.

Rapid principal turnover has real, negative consequences for the health of our schools, students and communities. According to , principal turnover correlates to declining student achievement in Math and ELA in the year following a vacancy, and it can take the next principal up to three years to regain progress for the school.

Paying attention now 鈥� when principals are leaving 鈥� makes a good news story. Paying attention in September and January and April 鈥� when principals are deciding whether or not to stay 鈥� makes a bigger difference for schools and the students they serve.

*As of early July, 56 principals retired or resigned.