1. May 28, 2015 01:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time
WILMINGTON, Del.­­(BUSINESS WIRE)­­Lamont W. Browne, Head of School/principal of EastSide Charter
School in Wilmington, today was named a recipient of the Ryan Award for exceptional leadership in closing the
achievement gap in urban K­12 schools. The prestigious award includes a $25,000 honorarium and the
opportunity to teach his successful methodologies at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern
University.
Pat Ryan, Jr., founder of the Accelerate Institute which sponsors the award, presented Browne with a $25,000
check in a surprise school assembly. “We created the Ryan Awards to highlight the leaders of the most
successful transformational schools in the country,” Ryan said. “We want to honor these heroes, enlist them as
role models and help current and future principals learn from their successes. Lamont Browne is the
embodiment of excellent school leadership.”
This is the third year these national awards are being conferred. They are distributed by the Chicago­based
Accelerate Institute, a non­profit organization dedicated to the development of high­impact urban school
leaders who accelerate student achievement.
Browne was called to an assembly of EastSide students and staff that was actually a ruse to surprise him with
the announcement. Browne said he was grateful for the honor, but acknowledged success at EastSide has
been a team effort. “We have great people, all with a great work ethic, great passion and great hunger to learn,
to grow, to collaborate and to help every child succeed. We all have the power to transform lives, eradicate the
achievement gap and produce motivated young people who will lead our state in the future. It is our job to make
it happen.”
Browne was hired in 2011 as a turnaround principal at EastSide, a Pre­K to 8 school serving 475 low­income
students in urban Wilmington which had been considered for shutdown by the State Board of Education. In his
four years at the helm, Browne has focused on teacher development and classroom excellence, resulting in the
school achieving the highest growth rate in both Math and English Language Arts scores of any charter school
DelawareSchoolPrincipalReceivesPrestigiousRyanAward
Lamont Browne, Head of School/principal of EastSide Charter School, learned
at a surprise ceremony that he is a Ryan Award recipient, which includes a
$25,000 honorarium and the opportunity to teach the next generation of school
leaders.

2. in Delaware in the past two testing years. EastSide’s Pre­K program also achieved a Delaware Star 5 rating, the
highest possible, in its first formal evaluation by the state, with 95 percent of its four­year­old students passing
the “Kindergarten Readiness” test.
Success of the school’s turnaround has been based on four major areas: student­centered decision making;
teacher talent selection and development; creating a culture of high expectations, transparency and
professional growth; and multi­faceted stakeholder involvement.
Browne instituted the “Teaching Excellence Framework” in 2014, an alternative to the state’s teacher evaluation
system approved by the Delaware Department of Education. “We set a goal to observe every one of our
teachers biweekly, unannounced, video­taped and followed by one­on­one coaching sessions,” Browne said.
“This approach forces our teachers to deliver excellence every day. By keeping teachers on their toes
throughout the year, they strive to deliver a high­quality lesson and consistent excellence for students. But the
real key is that teachers understand the coaching/mentoring focus of the program is designed to help teachers
constantly improve their skills.”
Browne is the first of two Ryan Awardees in 2015. The second recipient in another state will be announced in
the next several weeks. Ryan Award winners are nominated by education leaders across the country. Criteria
are: nominees must be K­12 principals for at least four years with a measurable record of consecutive student
achievement growth. This third class of three Ryan Awardees will be celebrated at the Accelerate Institute’s
annual Impact Dinner later this year in Chicago.
The Accelerate Institute is dedicated to ensuring all children have the opportunity to achieve to their fullest
potential. It identifies high­performing, results­focused school leadership with a passion for closing the
achievement gap in urban education. For further information on the Ryan Awards and the Accelerate Institute,
visit: http://www.accelerateinstitute.org/programs/ryan­fellowship/ryan­award­nomination.
For further information about EastSide Charter, visit: http://www.eastsidecharterschool.org.
Contacts
Accelerate Institute
Nora Ligurotis, 312.216.1708
nligurotis@accelerateinstitute.org