Frederick Brown
President | CEO
Frederick Brown is Learning Forward’s president | CEO. Fred is an education visionary who knows firsthand that our nation’s schools need transformational change if we are to meet the challenges of the next decades. Fred advocates that every child deserves to reach their highest potential and every educator must have the opportunity to participate in exemplary, ongoing, professional learning programs to provide students the skills needed to meet their unique needs. Supporting educators at all levels and improving student achievement are through lines of Fred's career. An elementary school teacher, a middle school assistant principal, and school principal, Fred saw firsthand the impact high-leverage instructional practices and school culture have on school success. Fred is a frequent speaker on leadership and building high-quality learning in schools. He has co-authored two books that have made significant contributions to the field of education, demonstrating how a comprehensive approach to professional learning can be achieved so that everyone in a system is a learner, and how principals apply a learning lens to their many critical responsibilities to create a productive climate for learning and collaboration. "Becoming a Learning System" and "The Learning Principal -- Becoming a Learning Leader" are time-tested Learning Forward resources for schools and leaders. Fred is a Learning Forward Academy graduate and serves as secretary/treasurer on the board of Learning First Alliance.
All Articles
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New report highlights the importance of the role of principal supervisors
By Frederick Brown A new report about The Wallace Foundation's Principal Supervisor Initiative (PSI) offers insight into the types of professional learning that are most effective for helping principal supervisors develop the instructional leadership capacity of principals. Among their findings, researchers noted that principal supervisors in PSI districts were able […] -
New report connects relicensure to real learning for educators
I'd like to send a shout-out to New America and authors Melissa Tooley and Taylor White for their recently released report, Rethinking Relicensure: Promoting Professional Learning Through Teacher Licensure Renewal Policies. After exploring how states handle relicensure, particularly when it comes to creating systems that contribute to enhancing educators' effectiveness […] -
Learning to lead
The role of the principal is a complex one. How well principals play that role matters to the success of the students and teachers they serve. Since Roland Barth (1984) succinctly noted that “the quality of a school is related to the quality of its leadership” (p. 93), research has […] -
Building a Continuum of Leadership Learning and Support: Principals and Central Office
Frederick Brown of Learning Forward, Kassandra Lassiter, Douglas Anthony, and Melissa Ellis of Prince George's County Public Schools, and Margaret Ackerman, Glenn Pethel, and Dale Pugh of Gwinnett County Public Schools deepen participant's understanding of research and resources that provide guidance in district leadership development efforts. Hear from the two […] -
How systems can support high-quality curricula
In her recent blog post, Learning Forward Executive Director Stephanie Hirsh argued that the impact of high-quality curricula will be fully realized when grade-level, subject-specific professional learning communities place deep study and planning for how to use these instructional materials at the core of their work. But, as Learning Forward's […] -
Create Learning Systems, Not Silos
In a learning system, central office personnel assume collective responsibility for schools and go about their work very differently. They are responsible not only for departments and programs, but also for student learning. They demonstrate that responsibility by engaging in data-informed conversations about student achievement. These conversations model a culture […] -
How Curriculum And Professional Learning Intersect
Research has found that high-quality curricula have a significant impact on student achievement (Steiner, 2017; Chingos & Whitehurst, 2012). But a curriculum is not effective on its own. It requires teachers who understand it and use it with intentionality and professional judgment. This means teachers who know the curriculum and […] -
Ask
Q: As we look to encourage the habitual use of effective collaborative learning practices, what is the role of school leaders in creating cultures that nurture collaborative learning among teachers in their buildings? We understand that the principal is critical to implementing schoolwide shifts in how people learn and how […] -
Celebrating principals and their powerful leadership practices
Having been an assistant principal and principal, I'm embarrassed to admit I don't remember much about the principals I had in school. I literally had to look back at my class pictures and yearbooks just to remember their names. But one person I will never forget is the principal who […] -
Honesty takes time, but it's worth it
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRE64ZUAySM[/embedyt] An August 13 Washington Post column carried this headline: "Why principals lie to ineffective teachers: Honesty takes too long." In it, the author discusses two recent studies that revealed principals' struggles in telling ineffective teachers they need to improve. The studies, performed by researchers at Vanderbilt, Stanford, and Education Researcher, […]
