Leading Educators

Chong-Hao Fu, CEO, Karolyn Belcher, President

Education

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Leading Educators works with school systems to strengthen the conditions for powerful, relevant learning so every student can thrive in a complex, changing world. Their vision is to ensure that excellent, future-ready learning is the norm–not the exception.

Year Founded: 2011

For more than a decade, Leading Educators has partnered with large urban and statewide systems to improve literacy, mathematics, and instructional leadership outcomes through scalable, multi-level support. Their approach is grounded in the belief that sustainable improvement requires systems that help all educators learn, adapt, and improve together over time. Leading Educators is also producing cutting-edge, human-centered models and guidance for navigating the potential of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies in teaching and learning. Rather than approaching AI as a standalone innovation trend, the organization is helping systems thoughtfully integrate new tools and instructional models in ways that strengthen—rather than fragment—teaching and learning.

Their future ambitions build from one of the strongest evidence bases in the field.

Leading Educators is the first professional learning organization in the past decade to receive Tier 1 evidence status in the What Works Clearinghouse, the Department of Education database that rigorously evaluates educational programs to determine “what works” in education.
Rigorous research on Leading Educators’ partnerships since 2016 found 21 positive cases of student impact with federal ESSA Tier 3 or stronger evidence. Students in supported schools experienced an average of 9 additional months of learning in a year.
National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data show that, of the five districts nationwide that improved in reading during the COVID-19 pandemic, four were Leading Educators partners.