Somerville Public Schools is one of five Massachusetts school districts leaning into doing school differently at a pivotal moment when Massachusetts is reimagining its high school graduation standards and federal funding continues to wane. Somerville Public Schools, along with Chicopee Public Schools, Randolph Public Schools, Pittsfield Public Schools, and Whitman-Hanson Regional School District, have been named the 2025 cohort of the Barr Foundation’s “Strengthening School Leadership” initiative starting in October. These districts, representing a range of geographic locations across the Commonwealth, each support at least six schools, including a high school, and serve between 2,500 and 8,000 students in their communities.

Building on the success and learnings of the inaugural cohort launched in 2019, the initiative seeks to ensure that every school is led by a strong principal supported by an aligned and coherent strategy for instructional improvement at both the school and system levels.

Somerville Public Schools and the other members of the cohort will engage in planning and pilot implementation of instructional leadership initiatives aimed at empowering school leaders and educators to create better outcomes for their students. To support this work, over the next two years, the grantees will each receive a $200,000 grant along with consulting support from Attuned Education Partners and research partner MDRC.

“Part of Barr’s focus is to invest in human potential,” said John Travis, Barr Education Senior Program Officer, “Education is a distinctly human endeavor at every level, so being able to invest in Somerville Public Schools is incredibly exciting. We look forward to learning alongside each of the 2025 grantees as they rethink school leadership and system conditions to drive instructional improvement at scale.”

The Barr Foundation, Attuned Education Partners, and MDRC look forward to the insights and progress that will emerge from this new cohort, contributing to the broader knowledge of the education sector.