New Zealand Educators Land US Educational Leadership Deal

22 March 2006
A cutting edge New Zealand educational leadership programme has been snapped up by the American market in a six figure deal.

The move will see the programme marketed throughout the US this year and further developed for implementation in US elementary and middle schools.

The Literacy Leader is a leadership programme for school principals developed by three Wellington educators.

It supports principals to lead change in literacy amongst students in elementary and middle schools (primary and intermediate) by reviewing and reforming reading, writing and speaking.

Lift Education’s Neale Pitches and Sue Watson developed the programme with literacy specialist Samantha Venning and have successfully trialled it in Pennsylvania, on the East Coast of the USA.

The trio believe their success is a coup in the competitive US education sector, especially now that the programme has been picked up by American educational publisher Pacific Learning for use in schools throughout the United States.

“The programme combines New Zealand’s cutting edge literacy practice with strong change leadership principles. It’s exciting that what started as a small regional programme in Pennsylvania is about to go national,” Pitches says.

The research-based programme is a highly successful approach to improving the teaching of literacy in schools.

Although The Literacy Leader has its roots in New Zealand educational practice, it is tailored to the specific needs of US educators facing mounting pressure to improve literacy scores under President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Policy, says Pitches.

Through the programme, principals and their leadership teams work collaboratively with skilled facilitators to undertake a review and needs analysis. An improvement plan driven by school-wide data about the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching programme in literacy is then developed.