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CHICAGO (JULY, 2011) – The Alain Locke Initiative announced today the first class of The Ryan Fellowship, a group of the most accomplished teachers in the United States, with the highest leadership potential, who are participating in a unique yearlong fellowship preparing them to become principals ready to create student achievement-accelerating schools in Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Inspired by the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship, the elements of The Ryan Fellowship include:

1.) Highest Leadership Potential Teachers: Identifying and selecting the highest leadership potential urban teachers in the United States, each of whom has demonstrated the ability to accelerate student achievement as a teacher or administrator;

2.) Academic Foundation: In partnership with Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, The Alain Locke Initiative empowers Ryan Fellows through a one of a kind summer institute at Kellogg covering cutting edge entrepreneurial business and school leadership principles and practices that must be mastered to create a high achieving urban school. The summer institute culminates in each Ryan Fellow creating an initial draft, similar to a doctoral thesis, of a personal Leadership Strategy and Playbook focused on the leadership strategies and tactics they plan to implement as a new principal to rapidly create a high achieving urban school;

3.) Field Study and Leadership Thesis: Each Fellow spends the Fall semester on the leadership team of an urban charter school reflecting on their strategy in the real world context of their new placement and evolving their personal Leadership Strategy and Playbook in light of insights gleaned from their Field Study;

4.) Placement as a Principal and Mentored Launch: After completion of the Field Study each Ryan Fellow will be hired by a charter school or management organization as a principal preparing to open or take over leadership of a new charter school campus the following school year. Ryan Fellows have the benefit of a Ryan Fellow Mentor, an urban principal with demonstrated success in creating an achievement accelerating urban school, who will support the Fellow as they implement their Leadership Strategy and Playbook as a new principal.

“We created the Ryan Fellowship to empower charter schools across the United States with leaders who possess both the qualities and skills to create schools that can rapidly and effectively accelerate student achievement”, said Pat Ryan, Jr. founder of The Alain Locke Initiative. “Far too many charter schools across the United States underperform their potential at a time when demand for better urban schools is fuelling rapid increases in charter school openings” Ryan continued. “Successful urban schools require great leaders who are prepared to be effective from day one. If we don’t solve the shortage of principals who understand how to create schools that can rapidly accelerate student achievement, we won’t be able to close the Achievement Gap.”

Earlier this year United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan commented on The Ryan Fellowship saying “I commend the Alain Locke Initiative for undertaking this innovative initiative to increase and support talented school leaders who can help the charter community better serve the interest of our nation’s children. This is an area of critical need that must be filled.”

The Ryan Fellows program evolved out of The Alain Locke Initiative’s success in creating one of the most successful urban charter schools in the United States: the Alain Locke Charter School. The Alain Locke Charter School, located in the heart of Chicago’s West Side, has achieved the top student achievement gains in the history of Illinois ISAT test: from 12% of children at or above grade level in reading and math in 2002 to 89% in 2010. Alain Locke Charter School was also recognized in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Education as 1 of 7 schools in the United States best “Closing the Achievement Gap” and now serves as a demonstration site to train Ryan Fellows and other urban school leaders in accelerating student achievement.

The Academic Foundation that Ryan Fellows receive during the Summer Institute is “one of a kind”, uniquely combining the best of Kellogg’s Levy Institute for Entrepreneurial Practice’s management coursework with The Alain Locke Initiative’s pioneering coursework in achievement accelerating school leadership strategies and practices. This unique school leadership curriculum is based on research and analysis of the leadership and management strategies and capabilities found in high achieving urban schools. This curriculum demonstrated great success in ExSL, the Alain Locke Initiative’s earlier work in training new charter school principals; graduates of ExSL were able to accelerate student achievement with average student growth of +32% in reading and math in the start-up year.

The Ryan Fellowship grew out of the success of the Alain Locke Charter School and ExSL, both founded by Pat Ryan Jr. with teams from The Alain Locke Initiative. The foundation created by Aon Corporation Founder Pat Ryan Sr. and his wife Shirley provided a $5 million initial commitment to expand this high impact initiative into a year long fellowship and scale it into New York City and Los Angeles. The Fellowship is named after the Patrick and Shirley Ryan Foundation.
 

About The Alain Locke Initiative
The Alain Locke Initiative, named after the first African American Rhodes Scholar, is a national nonprofit education organization focused on closing the achievement gap by energizing urban schools with the high-impact leaders of today and tomorrow.

The Alain Locke Initiative was founded by Pat Ryan Jr., a leading technology and education entrepreneur. Pat also founded INCISENT Technologies, ranked by Inc. Magazine as the #4 fastest growing private software company in the U.S. in 2008. A former inner-city teacher and gang narcotics police officer in Chicago, Pat created The Alain Locke Initiative by combining three urban education programs he founded over the past twenty years: the Inner-City Teaching Corps – empowering urban classrooms with the leaders of tomorrow; the Alain Locke Charter School – one of the nation’s most successful urban charter schools; and The Ryan Fellowship and its predecessor program ExSL to identify and develop principals ready to create student achievement-accelerating urban schools.

Rooted in an entrepreneurial spirit, The Alain Locke Initiative is driven by mission, results and a sense of possibility to close the achievement gap and provide an equal education for all children.

Visit www.alainlocke.org for more information.
Media Contact:  The Harbinger Group
Eileen Rochford, eileenr@theharbingergroup.com, 312/953-3305
 
About the Ryan Fellows
Chicago Fellows
Rita Nolan is the Executive Director of the Montessori Network and previously served as the Upper School Director for Chicago’s renowned Near North Montessori School from 2003 to 2009. A true innovator, in 2012 Nolan will be the first in Chicago to bring the Montessori model into a low-income community.  Her move to bring Montessori to Chicago’s most underserved neighborhood, Englewood, has been touted by the Chicago Tribune.  This year, Nolan has led community buy-in to her vision by operating a pilot version of the program in Englewood which has been hugely successful, garnering a wait list of 100 students.  As she prepares to open her new charter school, Nolan’s vision is to infuse the Montessori model with lessons learned from Alain Locke Charter School and entrepreneurial insights learned through The Ryan Fellowship.

Dawn Sandoval, with over 16 years experience in the field of education, has focused her leadership efforts on getting schools to understand the importance of the proficient use of  data to attain successful student performance. As a Curriculum Director for Chicago International Charter Schools (CICS), the largest charter network in Chicago, Sandoval created the 8-Principle Curriculum Model which has been adopted and used to accelerate student achievement throughout the CICS network.   Sandoval has also applied her initiative and tenacity to become a three-time Ironwoman. 

Victoria Jackson has been committed to urban education for the past eight years. Most recently she completed an internship at Urban Prep Academy EGP campus, one of Chicago’s most renowned high schools. During that time she assisted in implementing plans for the RTI program, created a literacy based detention center, and identified challenges and issues relating to students that resulted in implementing key instructional programs. Under the guidance of Tim King, Founder of Urban Prep Academy and Founding Board Member of Alain Locke Charter School, Jackson has developed the belief that an assertive educational foundation and an engaging atmosphere that enhances character skills is a perfect formula for embedding ongoing opportunities for our future generations. This summer Jackson spearheaded the United Leaders summer enrichment program that mentors underprivileged girls on Chicago’s Westside.

R. Cody Yocom came to Chicago in 2008, after teaching in Texas, to build achievement in communities where schools typically do not provide the discipline and rigor needed for students to be nationally competitive. At North Lawndale College Prep, Yocom piloted the school’s first US History Advanced Placement program. All of Yocom’s original 46 AP students were accepted in selective universities. Two years later, Perspectives Charter Schools took notice of the program’s success and wooed Yocom to become Dean of Students at their IIT Math and Science Academy. Yocom’s focus on rigor and discipline led him to develop and implement a schoolwide model to teach students how to lead “A Disciplined Life.” Within the first semester of implementation, the program resulted in a 25% decrease in student time away from instruction. Yocom holds an MA in Educational Leadership and Organizational Change and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Educational Leadership at Roosevelt University.

Los Angeles Fellows
Ramona Patrick graduated Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Southern Methodist University, and went on to lead Teach For America’s Los Angeles program to outstanding student achievement after three years as a teacher and literacy coach. As Program Director, Ramona led 44 teachers in 24 schools to surpass regional student achievement goals with either 80% mastery of content or 1.5 years worth of growth by students. Patrick most recently completed her Ed.D. at the University of Southern California where her dissertation focused on the allocation of educational resources to improve student achievement at four high performing charter schools in California.

Dawna Tully has used her expertise in technology and as a Curriculum and Language Development Resource Teacher to assist teachers with consistent increases in student achievement for seven years at her Pre-K -8th school in the Pasadena Unified School District. Under Tully’s instructional leadership, her school of over 1,000 students has achieved an average of 72% proficiency in the core academic subjects of English Language Arts, Math, Science and Social Studies. Tully received her MA in Instructional Technology & Media from The Teacher’s College at Columbia University.

New York City Fellows
Marvin English, a graduate of The University of Michigan, brings to urban education the leadership drive and tenacity he learned on the football field as a Collegiate Letter Winner. As a second and third grade classroom teacher at Achievement First and Chicago International Charter schools, both renowned and successful charter networks in New York City and Chicago respectively, English led his students to outstanding academic achievement: his students made an average of more than 2 years growth, and 92% of his students attained proficiency. English sought out The Ryan Fellowship as a way to gain the capabilities needed to have the same type of impact on a larger number of students.

Noell Lugay brings a teaching track record in Baltimore, demonstrating that she knows how to get results.  Two years ago, Lugay moved her students from 43% to 86% proficiency in math and from 48% to 81% proficiency in reading. Last year, she moved them to 100% proficiency. Having demonstrated leadership in accelerating student achievement, Lugay was tapped by the nationally recognized program, The New Teacher Project, to mentor and coach 14 new teachers. Lugay holds an MA in Teaching from Johns Hopkins University.