BOSTON — Nonprofits Barr Foundation and Springpoint have selected the second cohort of their Transformative Leaders of Massachusetts, a two-year fellowship aimed at supporting a diverse group of aspiring school leaders.
Two Springfield educators, Kori Alston, principal of Veritas Prep High School, and Teron Brown, math teacher, instructional coach, and basketball coach at Springfield Prep, are among 15 fellows selected from a group of 112 applicants. These middle-school and high-school educators are committed to delivering rigorous, student-centered instructional practice. They share a desire to build their knowledge and ability to lead in service of reimagining secondary schooling for all young people, especially the most underserved.
Nearly half of the educators selected are from charter schools, the other half from traditional public schools. Sixty percent were first-generation college students, more than one-quarter are bilingual or trilingual, and two-thirds of the cohort identify as Black, Indigenous and other people of color. They represent six regions across Massachusetts stretching from Boston to Great Barrington. Twenty percent of the fellows are LGBTQIA+. Fellows in the second cohort range in experience from five years to more than 21 years.
The cohort will begin their work in the summer of 2024. As fellows, these educators will participate in a two-year school-design and leadership program that will build their leadership capacity and instructional experience so they can become innovative leaders and change agents in their schools and communities.
Participants in the Transformative Leaders Massachusetts program will earn a stipend of $20,000 over two years in addition to their current salaries, have support to earn Massachusetts school-leader licensure through the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s alternative certification apprenticeship pathway, have a dedicated mentor at their current school and an experienced coach, expand their professional networks, join school visits across the nation and state to see transformational programs in action, and enact transformative learning through their school-based apprenticeship.
