The Raising School Leaders initiative is funded by:
Public school leaders are the linchpin of innovation needed to advance the quality of education across the state. Research indicates the school principal is second only to the classroom teacher in terms of impacting student learning and achievement.
Leaders matter.
Raise Your Hand Texas invests in leadership development, coaching, and school turnaround programs that help our state’s public school leaders become stronger educators. Well-trained leaders have the potential to bring lasting social and economic impact not only to their particular campuses and communities, but to the entire state of Texas and beyond.
PROGRAM
Raise Your Hand Texas – Harvard Leadership Program
Since 2008, Raise Your Hand Texas has sponsored over 1,200 school leaders to participate in a variety of professional development programs offered through The Principals’ Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. These summer institutes inspire, challenge, and empower both new and seasoned education leaders at the helm of Texas public schools.
PROGRAM
Leadership Symposium
* This conference is for Raise Your Hand Texas alumni.
One of the most exciting times is during the annual Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation leadership symposium. Months of meticulous preparation and setup unfold into two days of fellowship, presentations, breakout sessions, and dialogue on all things public education, with local, state, national, and global emphasis. The symposium inspires Raise Your Hand Texas alumni to broaden their scope of influence beyond their campus to push their thinking and practice beyond its current state.
GRANTS
The Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation has provided $15 million in grants to education organizations that are reinventing public education by developing strong principals, aspiring school leaders, and master teachers.
GRANT
E3 Alliance
As part of our commitment to developing campus leaders in the state of Texas, the Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation sponsors executive coaching opportunities for Central Texas principals through the E3 Alliance RAISEup Texas program.
GRANT
Relay Graduate School of Education
The Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation sponsors teachers enrolled in the Relay Graduate School of Education in Houston, which offers a competency-based Master of Arts in teaching.
GRANT
Teaching Trust
The Teaching Trust is an innovative model of school leadership training focused on equipping principals, teachers, and leadership teams with the skills and abilities required to move the needle in instructional practices and student achievement. Raise Your Hand Texas provided a five-year grant to seed the Teaching Trust in Dallas.
PREVIOUSLY FUNDED GRANTS
GRANT
New Leaders
The Raise Your Hand Texas Foundation funded New Leaders in Arlington ISD to develop talented educators into transformational school leaders.
GRANT
Rice Education Entrepreneurship Program (REEP) Business Fellowship
Raise Your Hand provided a grant for principals to attend this one-year business training program for K-12 educators in the Houston area. Graduates complete the program well-versed in the business, innovation, organization, and financial management tools they need to affect powerful change.
GRANT
Data Wise
Raise Your Hand partnered with the Lubbock Independent School District (LISD) for three years (2012-2015) to implement a data-driven process improvement initiative. Raise Your Hand sponsored the campus leadership teams of 13 LISD schools to participate in Harvard University’s Data Wise Improvement Process summer training institute. During the following school year, they received on-site campus support from Harvard University fellows.
GRANT
International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE)
Raise Your Hand partnered with the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) from 2013-2015 to design a school leadership coaching program to improve organizational and instructional leadership.
All of my schooling experience has never given me the opportunity to view things from a business model or perspective. REEP really has redesigned the way I think about education and how we do schooling.
Principal, Spring Branch Middle School - Spring Branch ISD
It’s like, when you go away and you work on yourself and you have this really major experience. How do you make sure you hold on to that feeling, so that you can keep reminding yourself of the purpose and the great structure you learned, so you can benefit thousands of kids from what you worked on for yourself?
Principal, Boerne Middle School - South Boerne ISD
I have recommended REEP to several principals. It makes you rethink strategies. It’s all about being opened up to other ways of doing things, because you can get in a rut. It’s invigorating and gives you a chance to go out and try some new things.
Principal, Cypress Lakes High School - Cy-Fair ISD
