Courage to Lead

Co-directed by Meaghan Hindman and Lissa Hines, Altura Preparatory School is a K–5 public charter school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, ranked the third best elementary school in the state by U.S. News. Serving 268 students, Altura reports strong academic outcomes, with proficiency rates of 94% for ELA, 87% for Math, and 91% for reading in the 2024-25 school year.

Founded by Kimberly Neal-Brannum, BELIEVE Schools develops public college- and career-preparatory high schools that equip students for independence and long-term success. In a milestone year, the organization secured $10M from Bloomberg and opened BELIEVE St. Louis High School in partnership with BJC HealthCare, creating healthcare career pathways that respond to regional workforce needs.

Led by Jessi Brunken, Blue Engine strengthens co-teaching and inclusive instruction in schools nationwide. Its data-driven coaching has tripled mastery rates for students with IEPs, doubled English proficiency growth for multilingual learners, and helped schools build stronger literacy systems.

Led by Dacia Toll, Coursemojo is an ELA-aligned, AI-powered teaching assistant that helps educators diagnose learning gaps, differentiate instruction, and deliver targeted one-on-one support. In 2024–25, Sumner County’s Mojo campuses saw an 8-point increase in ELA proficiency, while non-Mojo campuses experienced a slight decline.

Led by Laura McGowan-Robinson, the Diversity in Leadership Institute (DLI) identifies, develops and credentials culturally responsive TK–12 school leaders across California to advance more equitable outcomes for students. Since 2019, DLI has credentialed 124 leaders and successfully led advocacy efforts for a $10M California state grant to provide free credentialing for more than 300 school leaders.

Led by Lorraine Lago, LeadCoLab aims to improve the quality and sustainability of school leadership in Puerto Rico through system-wide programs that support school leaders and create a pipeline for new leadership. After participating in the institute, principals committed to staying in their role increased by 29% in Bayamón and 38% in San Juan.

Led by Amy Junge, Teacher-Powered Schools provides hands-on coaching to help schools build distributed leadership models that increase teacher ownership and collaboration. Eighty-two percent of coached schools report stronger capacity for student-centered learning, and 45% of teachers are likely to recommend the profession — more than double the national average.

Led by Lakisha Young, The Oakland REACH partners with districts to deliver family-powered tutoring and literacy models that drive measurable gains. A Northwestern University study found students in its MathBOOST program gained eight more points in math than peers. Now reaching 5,200+ students across six cities, Oakland Unified has fully adopted the Liberator Model—marking a shift from pilot to system change.

Led by CEO & Co-Founder Shalinee Sharma, Zearn is a K–8 math learning platform rated “Strong” (Tier 1) by Evidence for ESSA. Contributing to this rating was a 2023–24 quasi-experimental study by the Center for Research & Reform in Education at Johns Hopkins University of over 7,000 students in grades 4–8 across three suburban and rural Louisiana districts. The study found that schools using Zearn with dedicated implementation support significantly outperformed peers on state math assessment, with a +0.20 SD gain and consistent results across student subgroups.