TEL’s Impact
Impact of the TEL Fellowship
Since 2018, TEL has launched three successful cohorts, each steadily increasing the percentage of Leaders of Color. External evaluations conducted by Metis Associates, an independent research firm, showed significant outcomes with respect to both “inner changes” where participants grew in their awareness, beliefs, thinking, and feelings, and “outer changes” where participants enacted changes in their professional lives including at the organizational level. Statistically significant findings include increased:
Feelings of connectedness with others
Confidence in their personal resilience
Self-regulation and reflection capacities
Use of SEL and mindfulness practices
Use of equity as a guiding principle in decision-making
Ability to initiate and engage in difficult conversations
Impact by the Numbers
TEL’s Fellowship cohorts represent a growing global community of diverse educational leaders. Since the launch of TEL’s Inaugural Fellowship cohort, the number of BIPOC educational leaders in each successive cohort has grown to form a majority.
The impact and reach of successive cohorts has also grown in serving an increasing number of staff, teachers, and students in 27 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and 3 countries. The diverse educational leaders joining our fourth Fellowship 2024 - 25 cohort have an even larger impact on more than 1.5 Million students and 116,000 staff and teachers.
Impact on the Field
TEL is a thought leader in the field of transformative leadership development. With its founding in 2018, TEL was the first educational leadership development program to integrate the areas of SEL, Mindfulness, Equity, and Transformative Leadership into its uniquely intensive cohort-based model. A recent article, Can We Make Real, Transformative Change in Education? on the effectiveness of TEL’s program model was published by the Greater Good Science Center.
TEL is engaged in on-going research of the experiences of its TEL Fellows, including a current (2022-23) study in partnership with the Mindfulness and Courageous Action (MICA) Lab at the University of District of Columbia, an HBCU, which engages an innovative Contemplative Focus Group methodology developed by Dr. Michelle C. Chatman. The current study explores TEL Fellows’ experiences of personal and systems transformation through the Fellowship. Findings from this study will be prepared and shared as tools and articles for guiding transformative leadership practices.
Our Partners and Funders
We are deeply grateful to our partners and funders whose generosity has enabled a growing number of exceptional and diverse educational leaders around the world to truly create beloved educational communities where all adults and children can thrive.
