CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Two of the nation’s top school principals today received the Ryan Award for exceptional leadership in closing the achievement gap in urban K-12 schools. The prestigious award includes a $25,000 honorarium and the opportunity to teach their successful practices at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Pat Ryan, Jr., founder of the Chicago-based Accelerate Institute which sponsors the award, presented the winners with their awards at the Institute’s annual Impact Dinner in Chicago. “We created the Ryan Awards three years ago to highlight the leaders of the most successful transformational schools in the US,” Ryan said. “Our goal is to recognize the achievements of these leaders, enlist them as role models and help current and future principals learn from their successes.”
The 2015 Ryan Award winners are Lamont W. Browne, head of school/principal of EastSide Charter School in Wilmington, Del., and Tyson Kane, founding principal of Chicago Bulls College Prep High School in Chicago. The winners were surrounded by their families and colleagues from their respective schools when they received their awards.
Browne was hired in 2011 as a turnaround principal at EastSide, a Pre-K to 8 school serving 475 low-income students in urban Wilmington which had been considered for shutdown by the State Board of Education. In his four years at the helm, Browne has focused on teacher development and classroom excellence, resulting in the school achieving the highest growth rate in both Math and English Language Arts scores of any charter school in Delaware in the past two testing years. Success of the school’s turnaround has been based on four areas: student-centered decision making; teacher talent selection and development; creating a culture of high expectations, transparency and professional growth; and multi-faceted stakeholder involvement.
Kane started with Chicago Bulls College Prep six years ago when it was established as part of the Noble Network of Charter Schools. The high school got its launch and name with the financial support of the Chicago Bulls Charities and serves 1,100 low-income students, primarily from Chicago’s west side. Under Kane’s leadership, Bulls Prep students have performed at consistently high levels, with 100 percent of its graduates being accepted to four-year universities, including Harvard, Northwestern and the University of Chicago. Of the 120 high schools in Chicago, Bulls Prep has ranked in the top five in ACT test score growth of its students from freshman to senior year for the past three years. One of Kane’s key initiatives was to implement a student-led, discussion-based model in the school’s classrooms.
The Ryan Award is the first national award honoring high-impact school principals in the US. Previous winners have been from Newark, Phoenix, Atlanta, Chicago, New Orleans and Washington, D.C., all heads of schools both public and charter serving minority populations.
Ryan Award winners are nominated by education leaders across the country. Criteria are: nominees must be urban K-12 principals for at least four years with a measurable record of accelerated student achievement growth.
The Accelerate Institute is dedicated to ensuring all children have the opportunity to achieve to their fullest potential. It identifies high performing, results-focused school leadership with a passion for closing the achievement gap in urban education. For further information on the Ryan Awards and the Accelerate Institute, visit: http://www.accelerateinstitute.org/programs/ryan-fellowship/ryan-award-nomination.
