UVA-Based National Education Leadership Program Continues to Build Momentum

Joint initiative of Darden and UVA Education School helps schools and systems improve educational outcomes

The University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education, a prominent national education leadership development provider, today announced its new cohort of school and district leadership teams.

A joint initiative of the Darden School of Business and the School of Education and Human Development, UVA-PLE is a multi-year engagement with superintendents, principals and other leaders that combines world-class executive education and thought partnership grounded in research. The UVA-PLE Core Partnership is the only remaining research-proven effort in the country supporting K-12 educators through leadership development, capacity building and collective problem-solving. This is UVA-PLE’s 21st cohort.

UVA-PLE provides regular engagement with education leaders over the course of over two years, including onsite visits and a series of hands-on professional development sessions in Charlottesville. Through tailored support and coaching, UVA-PLE helps leaders assess current gaps and conditions; establish and advance data-driven action plans; engage stakeholders at all levels; and ensure accountability at both the school and system levels for goals and commitments.

“We believe that transformative change starts with inspiring and empowered leaders,” said UVA-PLE Executive Director William Robinson. “Educators are hard-working, selfless and servant-minded; yet, they rarely have the opportunity to invest in themselves. By focusing on the human components of change, we empower our partners to ignite action via a compelling vision and willingness to disrupt the system. We welcome the passionate and courageous leaders of our 21st cohort and know they are ready to do big things for their students.”

The Summer 2024-Spring 2026 cohort includes leaders from 17 districts across 10 states:

Arizona: Sierra Vista Unified School District
California: Visalia Unified School District
Colorado: Aurora Public Schools, Burlington School District RE-6J, Cherry Creek
School District, Colorado Springs School District D11, Denver Public Schools, Englewood  Schools, La Junta Schools
Georgia: City Schools of Decatur
Michigan: Eastpointe Community Schools
Missouri: St. Joseph School District
Pennsylvania: Chester Upland School District, School District of the City of York
South Carolina: Berkeley County School District
Texas: Waco Independent School District
Wisconsin: Fond du Lac School District

Each partner works with UVA-PLE to identify challenges critical to their systems and schools that they will address, such as reducing absenteeism, strengthening tier one instructional supports, enhancing teacher recruitment and capacity-building and expanding access to post-secondary opportunities.

Long-standing disparities in achievement between Black and Hispanic students and their White counterparts persist, exacerbated by pandemic learning loss. In the face of such extraordinary challenges, UVA-PLE and its partner schools and districts have dramatically raised student outcomes.

Among the 175 districts and 815 schools from 32 states that have participated in UVA-PLE over more than two decades, the results are profound. Fifty percent of recent partners achieved double-digit gains in math or language arts in only three years, many outperforming pre-pandemic assessments contrary to national trends. Local examples include:

• The School District of the City of York, Pennsylvania, became the first district in the Commonwealth to successfully exit financial recovery, a program designed to help struggling school systems.
• Fulton County, Georgia, saw a 90% decrease in systemwide F-rated schools, reduced from 29 to three such schools in four years while concurrently improving industry certification pathways and increasing college admissions at three high schools by 50%.
• In Oklahoma City, the number of underperforming schools decreased from 30 to nine schools, while the district is now providing students greater access to post-secondary opportunities.
• Fond du Lac School District, Wisconsin – which has been a part of previous cohorts – realized dramatic gains with their high school meeting state report card standards for the first time in a decade and nine schools exceeding expectations, four more than at the start of the partnership.

“The real test of student success is when we see sustained results, and that is exactly what we’ve experienced since joining the partnership,” said Dr. Jeff Fleig, superintendent of Fond du Lac School District. “Participating in UVA-PLE provides fresh insights and fosters collaboration and innovative ways to solve our district’s biggest challenges.”

A core tenet of UVA-PLE is that lasting change starts with deliberate leadership development by helping education leaders to think and act like CEOs through the key foundations of action planning, learning organizations and data-driven instruction.