Serving in a leadership role can be very lonely. The most significant challenge that every leader faces is dealing with the isolation that the position often entails, especially when leading an organization through a crisis.

Our education leaders have been under siege throughout the pandemic. Beyond the normal complexity of leading an educational institution, education leaders have had to respond to the impact of the pandemic on schooling. Additionally, educational leaders have had to respond to the challenges associated with ensuring every learner is supported in an inclusive and equitable learning environment. Every moment of every day, education leaders face a myriad of decisions that have significant implications on learners, educators, parents, and communities. The stakes for our educational leaders have never been higher.

Given the myriad of challenges our leaders face every day, it is our collective responsibility to support education leaders in meeting these challenges. Every institution must be able to uniquely pursue and achieve its goals and expectations for its learners. In this edition you will find:

We know that there is not a one-size-fits-all approach to continuous improvement, but we can strive to build communities of support around leaders to help schools leverage their capabilities and build capacities to engage in the process of improvement so that the institution can grow their learners, teachers, and leaders.

Private: Mark A. Elgart, Ed.D.
Dr. Mark A. Elgart has served as president and CEO of Cognia since 2002. Under his leadership Cognia was established, following the merger of AdvancED and Measured Progress, to bridge the gap between school evaluation and student assessment.  Cognia serves as the trusted partner with over 36,000 institutions in 85 countries to advance learning for 25 million students.  Elgart has a long, distinguished career of 40 years as an educational leader including time as a math and physics teacher, school principal, and chief executive leading a global, education non-profit.  He is annually recognized, both locally and internationally, as an influential leader in education due to his impact on education policy and the work of schools.  He is an internationally recognized speaker on education and frequent author on educational issues including recent whitepapers on federal policy and school improvement.  In education, Elgart is widely viewed as the foremost authority on school improvement and education quality.  Elgart earned a bachelor’s  in Mathematics from Springfield College, a master’s in Educational Administration from Westfield State College, and Doctorate in Education in Leadership in Schooling from the University of Massachusetts.

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