Transformative leaders
Nancy Gutierrez grew up in a place more famous for a high crime rate than for high-performing public schools. But the native of East San Jose, Calif., never hesitated about going back to her neighborhood as an educator. After college, she worked there as a teacher and as the founding principal of a new middle school, before beginning the turnaround process at a struggling middle school. Then she went back to school. In an interview three years ago, Gutierrez told a reporter that “strong leaders” were essential to school improvement. This month she joins 20 other women and men as the first graduates of an interdisciplinary Harvard program designed to create a corps of leaders committed to transforming the nation’s public school system. Harvard, said Gutierrez, took her “from being a good leader to a highly skilled, thoughtful, and reflective leader.” The graduates of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) doctor of education leadership...