When Harvard Graduate School of Education doctoral student student Mona Ford Walker began her role as principal of the F. Lyman Winship Elementary School in the Brighton section of Boston in 2015, the school was among the lowest performing in Massachusetts. Under Ford Walker’s leadership, things began to change, and in 2018 and 2019 the school was named a Massachusetts School of Recognition — the only within Boston Public Schools (BPS) to receive the designation two years in a row.
This year, under the guidance of another HGSE school leader, Brian Radley, Ed.M.’19, the Winship was selected as the first-place winner of the School on the Move Prize, a sought-after award from the Boston-based school improvement organization EdVestors. The award, which recognizes the Winship for showing three years of continuous school improvement and accelerated student achievement compared to…