Study: Excellent Leadership Key To Success In High-Poverty Schools

State education leaders say schools with high poverty rates can have excellent students. A study released Wednesday found strong leadership is key to breaking the cycle and the stereotypes. “We didn’t know we were in poverty. We had no clue...everybody around us was like us," Columbus’ Eastmoor Academy principal Alesia Gillison recalled of her childhood. “We didn’t know we weren’t supposed to achieve. We just did it because that was the expectation.â€? Gillison said she sets the same expectation for her students. Eastmoor 10th and 11th grade students scored in the 80th and 90th percentiles on state math and reading tests. Eastmoor was one of nine Ohio schools studied by Public Agenda, an education research organization. Each school’s poverty rate exceeded 50 percent, but they were among the highest performing schools in the state. Gillison said the study proves poor children can excel with the right leaders and teachers. “Once you start getting those successes, once you see this happening, then teachers mind frames will change," Gillison said. "But if we keep saying poverty, and we keep labeling, then teachers will say well they’re never going to do this.â€? Interim Ohio Education Superintendent Michael Sawyers called for the replacement of poor-performing principals even though it might be unpopular. “The reality is we’ve been part of the problem," Sawyers said. "We have to step up to the plate and say, ‘you know what? We have to take some responsibility here as educators.’â€? Cuts in state pensions might open up jobs as teachers and administrators opt to retire now. Richard Stoff, with Ohio Business Roundtable which helped sponsor the study, called the potential retirements an opportunity to get a “new breedâ€? of leaders in the profession. State education officials plan to distribute the study to all schools.