Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund Gives $50,000 for Study of Successful Leaders in High-Poverty Schools

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- There are leaders to be found, working at schools in the poorest communities, who have helped students succeed amid the challenges that surround them.

Stephen L. Jacobson, Ph.D., associate dean for academic affairs in the University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education (GSE), with the support of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund, hopes to identify such leaders and learn from their strategies, their efforts and their victories.

The Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund has given $50,000 to Jacobson, also UB professor of educational administration in the GSE's Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, for a study of successful leadership in elementary and secondary school settings that serve high-poverty communities.

The research will focus on learning more about school leaders' influence on student performance, and how they work with teachers, staff, parents, members of the community and the students themselves to improve student learning.

The grant is part of the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund's "Ventures in Leadership" program, the goal of which is to help nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations and public schools around the country test innovative ideas for improving educational leadership.

"We are pleased to offer 'Ventures in Leadership' awards that will bring innovative approaches to the way we view and respond to the crisis in educational leadership," said Mary Lee Fitzgerald, director of education programs at the Wallace Funds. "We believe that these ideas will foster new partnerships between states, communities, schools and districts that will ultimately result in improved student achievement."

Jacobson, whose research focuses on the reform of school-leadership preparation and practice, will serve as the principal investigator on a UB study team that includes assistant professors Lauri Johnson and Corrie Giles, and doctoral student Sharon Brooks, all from the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy.

The study grew out of a lack of information on effective school leadership, especially for schools in high-poverty communities, Jacobson said.

"With new federal legislation requiring that 'No Child Be Left Behind,' it is imperative that we learn more about the practices employed by school leaders who have improved the educational life chances of those youngsters who traditionally have been at high risk for failure," he added.

Jacobson explained that the project will produce case studies on six school leaders in high-poverty schools found in Buffalo and Rochester, two of New York State's "Big Five" urban school districts. The cases will be selected from schools that have shown at least three years of improving student achievement scores that coincide with the arrival of a new principal. Findings from this set of case studies then will be used to make recommendations that can help administrators enhance student performance in similar schools.

Mary Gresham, dean of the UB Graduate School of Education and UB vice president for Public Service and Urban Affairs, thanked the Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund for its support of "a timely, significant project that has the potential to be of great value to the development of educational leadership in elementary and secondary schools, especially as it relates to improving student performance in high-poverty communities."

The grant is part of "The Campaign for UB: Generation to Generation," which is in its final phase and has a goal of $250 million.

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