Six Boston teachers are among a group of 15 selected as the second cohort of a fellowship program that aims to equip leaders with tools to improve the high school experience for students and staff.

Led by the educational nonprofit Springpoint and funded by a grant from the Barr Foundation, the Transformative Leaders of Massachusetts fellowship program offers participants the opportunity to change the landscape of secondary education in the face of rising attrition rates among principals.

“The program really resonated with me because of its focus on not only maintaining practices that have long existed in public schools, but also really thinking about how to transform high schools and transform kids’ experiences in high school,” said Patrick White, principal of Codman Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester and one of the program’s fellows.

White is joined by leaders from other Boston schools — Neighborhood House Charter School and Conservatory Lab Charter School in Dorchester, Excel Academy Charter High School in East Boston, Boston Latin Academy and Dearborn STEM Academy in Roxbury — as well as other schools across Massachusetts.

During the two-year fellowship, which began in July, the cohort will “strengthen their leadership skills and educational experience so they can become innovative leaders and agents of change in their schools and communities,” Springpoint said in a statement.

That means taking courses during school-based learning that teach educators how to address inequities within schools and foster inclusive and supportive environments for students and staff, said April McKoy, senior director of Springpoint, which is leading the grant.

Scholars continue to work in their respective schools while continuing their learning. They receive a $20,000 stipend and work with a mentor within their school community.

The goal of the fellowship is to “drive meaningful change within schools,” McKoy said. In the new cohort, some fellows are working to close achievement gaps by developing strategies to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds, while others are developing opportunities for students of color.

The fellowship began with a meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, where the cohort discussed how the legacy of schooling, the slave trade, the civil rights movement, and mass incarceration have impacted education in the United States.

During his first year as interim principal of Codman Academy, White spent time thinking about “transformation, equity and justice” in his career as an educational leader, he said. The fellowship gave him the opportunity to further explore those questions.

“It’s really important for us as a cohort to ground ourselves in that knowledge and that understanding,” he said of the history of education, “so that when we talk about transforming high school, we’re really talking about transforming a system that has its roots deeply in inhumane practices, and the possibility of really changing that.”

White said his goal is to take his institution “to the next level.”

“Codman Academy has always been an innovative school,” White said. “We’ve always wanted to challenge what high school should look like with what it could look like,” he said.

Focus on staff, students and families

In the two months since the fellowship began, White said he and his colleagues have discussed strategies to improve secondary education. Among those strategies are “empathy interviews,” which involve taking time to sit down and talk one-on-one with students and their families about their “lived experiences in school.”

They also considered how to collaborate with staff and teachers to understand their needs and enable them to “grow…in their work environment,” so that they in turn can do the same for their students.

Beyond seeking to learn how to change secondary education for students, Belzie Mont-Louis, an instructional coach and director of the drama program at Boston Latin Academy, applied for the fellowship for her own professional development.

“Part of the reason I’ve stayed in education for 20 years is that every few years I feel like I need to refine my own practice,” she said. “And if I’m working with other people and serving children, I feel like I need to seek out those opportunities.”

He liked the idea of ​​an “intensive coaching” program linked to his school community.

In the brotherhood, Mont-LOuis’s goal has been to create a better environment for students and staff, she said. Schools have faced staffing and retention issues after the pandemic “because schools have become places where teachers feel it’s not necessarily viable to have a career,” she said.

Students are also struggling: between a quarter and half of them report low engagement, according to a Gallup survey of 2,317 primary and secondary students conducted in April and May.

Student engagement is a major educational priority at Boston Latin Academy this year, Mont-Louis said. The school is focusing on increasing “constructive student exchanges” to boost student motivation and give them a voice in their education.

“The question we’re trying to answer is how do we make high school a rewarding experience for students,” she said, “and I think that’s also the question the scholarship seeks to address with its approach.”

An evolving program

Springpoint’s McKoy says the first cohort, selected in 2022, has been very successful. While Springpoint doesn’t have any quantitative data to assess the scholarship’s results, McKoy said the organization is currently writing an impact report that will be available in the fall.

The first cohort completed the program this year, and based on feedback and observations, McKoy said, Springpoint refined the program’s structure for the second year. The program now includes more community support, because “change and leadership work is lonely,” she said. Fellows are now assigned an executive sponsor, someone from their community who can support and reflect with them.

Springpoint has also begun partnering with fellows’ schools to better integrate them into the fellowship program and has slowed down the pace of the program to ensure that what fellows learn is achievable.

Selected from more than 100 applicants, this year’s scholarship recipients impressed McKoy, she said, giving her hope for the future of education in Massachusetts, “especially with the quality of people who are involved.” But more work needs to be done to improve student success and belonging, she added.

“We need to do more to improve their learning experiences every day, to make sure that students are the architects of their learning,” she said. “We need to engage communities and families more, and see them as partners in learning. And we need to address the inequities that exist, particularly for marginalized and underserved groups.” students.”