Mark Gleason, head of the influential Philadelphia School Partnership, is leaving
“I would say we’ve created better seats, we’ve created better access to information, but better is not good enough,” said Michael O’Neill, PSP board chair.
Mark Gleason, who helped shape a group that has raised millions for Philadelphia charter, private, and public schools in the last decade, will leave his post this year, he said Tuesday.
Gleason arrived in Philadelphia in 2011, recruited to lead the new Philadelphia School Partnership, an organization with an audacious goal: to raise $100 million to expand high-performing schools, regardless of sector. The goal was to “transform the educational landscape of our city, especially for low-income students and students of color,” organizers said.
Since then, Gleason has exerted influence in ways large and small, largely through the power of deep pockets at a time when public-education funding was scarce.
After a decade, it was time to transition leadership of PSP, Gleason and PSP board chair Michael O’Neill said Tuesday.
“We’re both entrepreneurs, and we both know that young, growing organizations eventually have to navigate their way into a second generation of leadership,” said Gleason, who came to PSP with a background in journalism and a stint as a school board member in New Jersey. “That can be difficult, but when done well, it helps an organization to grow even stronger.”
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On Gleason’s watch, PSP has had a hand in creating 20 new schools across all sectors; it has given funds to expand and turn around dozens more.
The nonprofit — which relies primarily on funding from private donors but has also received funds from the Walton Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation — also launched a tool that rates and lists information about all types of schools around the city and started a central application for most city charter schools.
But his tenure has been rocky at times: PSP and Gleason have been protested and derided as furthering inequities and advocating for the privatization of public education.
O’Neill said Gleason has led a successful organization, but his successor faces challenges.
“I would say we’ve created better seats, we’ve created better access to information, but better is not good enough,” O’Neill said.
The goal going forward?
“Closing the achievement gap” between black and white students, O’Neill said, “and all that comes with it.”
Gleason will stay on as executive director as his successor is chosen, but that process is already underway, and should be complete in the first half of the year, O’Neill said. The board will look nationally for Gleason’s successor but hopes to find someone who knows the Philadelphia education landscape.
Gleason, 55, said he’s not sure what comes next, but he has no plans to leave Philadelphia.
“I’m still very committed to the opportunity to improve education in the city,” he said, adding that he hopes his next business or job “will still be connected to education in some way.”